Fabric network

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods relating to communication within a fabric network are presented. The fabric network includes one or more logical networks that enables devices connected to the fabric to communicate with each other using various profiles known to the devices. A device sending a message may follow a general message format to encode the message so that other devices in the fabric may understand the message regardless of which logical networks the devices are connected to. Within the message format, a payload of data may be included for the receiving device to forward, store, or process the message. The format and the contents of the payload may vary according to a header within the payload that indicates a profile and a message type within the profile. Using the profile and message type, the receiving devices may decode the message to process the message.

BACKGROUND

This disclosure relates to a fabric network that couples electronicdevices using one or more network types.

This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects ofart that may be related to various aspects of the present techniques,which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed tobe helpful in providing the reader with background information tofacilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the presentdisclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statementsare to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.

Network-connected devices appear throughout homes. Some of these devicesare often capable of communicating with each other through a singlenetwork type (e.g., WiFi connection) using a transfer protocol. It maybe desired to use less power intensive connection protocols for somedevices that are battery powered or receive a reduced charge. However,in some scenarios, devices connected to a lower power protocol may notbe able to communicate with devices connected to a higher power protocol(e.g., WiFi).

SUMMARY

A summary of certain embodiments disclosed herein is set forth below. Itshould be understood that these aspects are presented merely to providethe reader with a brief summary of these certain embodiments and thatthese aspects are not intended to limit the scope of this disclosure.Indeed, this disclosure may encompass a variety of aspects that may notbe set forth below.

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to systems and methods afabric network that includes one or more logical networks that enablesdevices connected to the fabric to communicate with each other using alist of protocols and/or profiles known to the devices. Thecommunications between the devices may follow a typical message formatthat enables the devices to understand communications between thedevices regardless of which logical networks the communicating devicesare connected to in the fabric. Within the message format, a payload ofdata may be included for the receiving device to store and/or process.The format and the contents of the payload may vary according to aheader within the payload that indicates a profile (including one ormore protocols) and/or a type of message that is being sent according tothe profile.

According to some embodiments, two or more devices in a fabric maycommunicate using status reporting protocols or profiles. For example,in certain embodiments, a status reporting protocol or schema may beincluded in a core profile that is available to devices connected to thefabric. Using the status reporting protocol, devices may send or requeststatus information to or from other devices in the fabric.

Similarly, in certain embodiments, two or more devices in a fabric maycommunicate using update software protocols or profiles. In someembodiments, the update software protocol or schema may be included in acore profile that is available to devices connected to the fabric. Usingthe update software protocol, devices may request, send, or notify thepresence of updates within the fabric.

In certain embodiments, two or more devices in a fabric may communicateusing data management protocols or profiles. In some embodiments, thedata management protocol or schema may be included in a core profilethat is available to devices connected to the fabric. Using the updatedata management protocol, devices may request, view, or tracknode-resident information that is stored in other devices.

Furthermore, in certain embodiments, two or more devices in a fabric maytransfer data using bulk data transfer protocols or profiles. In someembodiments, the bulk data transfer protocol or schema may be includedin a core profile that is available to devices connected to the fabric.Using the bulk data transfer protocol, devices may initiate, send, orreceive bulk data using any logical networks in the fabric. In certainembodiments, either a sending or a receiving device using the bulk datatransfer protocol may be able to “drive” a synchronous transfer betweenthe devices. In other embodiments, the bulk transfer may be performedwith an asynchronous transfer.

Various refinements of the features noted above may exist in relation tovarious aspects of the present disclosure. Further features may also beincorporated in these various aspects as well. These refinements andadditional features may exist individually or in any combination. Forinstance, various features discussed below in relation to one or more ofthe illustrated embodiments may be incorporated into any of theabove-described aspects of the present disclosure alone or in anycombination. The brief summary presented above is intended only tofamiliarize the reader with certain aspects and contexts of embodimentsof the present disclosure without limitation to the claimed subjectmatter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various aspects of this disclosure may be better understood upon readingthe following detailed description and upon reference to the drawings inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electronic device having that may beinterconnected with other devices using a fabric network, in accordancewith an embodiment;

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a home environment in which thegeneral device of FIG. 1 may communicate with other devices via thefabric network, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of an Open Systems Interconnection(OSI) model that characterizes a communication system for the homeenvironment of FIG. 2, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 4 illustrates the fabric network having a single logical networktopology, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 5 illustrates the fabric network having a star network topology, inaccordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 6 illustrates the fabric network having an overlapping networkstopology, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 7 illustrates a service communicating with one or more fabricnetworks, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 8 illustrates two devices in a fabric network in communicativeconnection, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 9 illustrates a unique local address format (ULA) that may be usedto address devices in a fabric network, in accordance with anembodiment;

FIG. 10 illustrates a process for proxying periphery devices on a hubnetwork, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 11 illustrates a tag-length-value (TLV) packet that may be used totransmit data over the fabric network, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 12 illustrates a general message protocol (GMP) that may be used totransmit data over the fabric network that may include the TLV packet ofFIG. 11, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 13 illustrates a message header field of the GMP of FIG. 12, inaccordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 14 illustrates a key identifier field of the GMP of FIG. 12, inaccordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 15 illustrates an application payload field of the GMP of FIG. 12,in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 16 illustrates a status reporting schema that may be used to updatestatus information in the fabric network, in accordance with anembodiment;

FIG. 17 illustrates a profile field of the status reporting schema ofFIG. 16, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 18 illustrates a protocol sequence that may be used to perform asoftware update between a client and a server, in accordance with anembodiment;

FIG. 19 illustrates an image query frame that may be used in theprotocol sequence of FIG. 18, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 20 illustrates a frame control field of the image query frame ofFIG. 19, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 21 illustrates a product specification field of the image queryframe of FIG. 19, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 22 illustrates a version specification field of the image queryframe of FIG. 19, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 23 illustrates a locale specification field of the image queryframe of FIG. 19, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 24 illustrates an integrity types supported field of the imagequery frame of FIG. 19, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 25 illustrates an update schemes supported field of the image queryframe of FIG. 19, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 26 illustrates an image query response frame that may be used inthe protocol sequence of FIG. 18, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 27 illustrates a uniform resource identifier (URI) field of theimage query response frame of FIG. 26, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 28 illustrates a integrity specification field of the image queryresponse frame of FIG. 26, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 29 illustrates an update scheme field of the image query responseframe of FIG. 26, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 30 illustrates a sequence used to employ a data management protocolto manage data between devices in the fabric network, in accordance withan embodiment;

FIG. 31 illustrates a snapshot request frame that may be used in thesequence of FIG. 30, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 32 illustrates an example profile schema that may be accessed usingthe snapshot request frame of FIG. 31, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 33 is a binary format of a path that may indicate a path in aprofile schema, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 34 illustrates a watch request frame that may be used in thesequence of FIG. 30, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 35 illustrates a periodic update request frame that may be used inthe sequence of FIG. 30, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 36 illustrates a refresh request frame that may be used in thesequence of FIG. 30, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 37 illustrates a cancel view request that may be used in thesequence of FIG. 30, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 38 illustrates a view response frame that may be used in thesequence of FIG. 30, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 39 illustrates an explicit update request frame that may be used inthe sequence of FIG. 30, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 40 illustrates a view update request frame that may be used in thesequence of FIG. 30, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 41 illustrates an update item frame that may be updated using thesequence of FIG. 30, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 42 illustrates an update response frame that may be sent as anupdate response message in the sequence FIG. 30, in accordance with anembodiment;

FIG. 43 illustrates a communicative connection between a sender and areceiver in a bulk data transfer, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 44 illustrates a SendInit message that may be used to initiate thecommunicative connection by the sender of FIG. 43, in accordance with anembodiment;

FIG. 45 illustrates a transfer control field of the SendInit message ofFIG. 44, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 46 illustrates a range control field of the SendInit message ofFIG. 45, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 47 illustrates a SendAccept message that may be used to accept acommunicative connection proposed by the SendInit message of FIG. 44sent by the sender of FIG. 44, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 48 illustrates a SendReject message that may be used to reject acommunicative connection proposed by the SendInit message of FIG. 44sent by the sender of FIG. 44, in accordance with an embodiment; and

FIG. 49 illustrates a ReceiveAccept message that may be used to accept acommunicative connection proposed by the receiver of FIG. 44, inaccordance with an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

One or more specific embodiments of the present disclosure will bedescribed below. These described embodiments are only examples of thepresently disclosed techniques. Additionally, in an effort to provide aconcise description of these embodiments, all features of an actualimplementation may not be described in the specification. It should beappreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation,as in any engineering or design project, numerousimplementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve thedevelopers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related andbusiness-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation toanother. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a developmenteffort might be complex and time consuming, but may nevertheless be aroutine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those ofordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure.

When introducing elements of various embodiments of the presentdisclosure, the articles “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to mean thatthere are one or more of the elements. The terms “comprising,”“including,” and “having” are intended to be inclusive and mean thatthere may be additional elements other than the listed elements.Additionally, it should be understood that references to “oneembodiment” or “an embodiment” of the present disclosure are notintended to be interpreted as excluding the existence of additionalembodiments that also incorporate the recited features.

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to an efficientfabric network that may be used by devices and/or services communicatingwith each other in a home environment. Generally, consumers living inhomes may find it useful to coordinate the operations of various deviceswithin their home such that all of their devices are operatedefficiently. For example, a thermostat device may be used to detect atemperature of a home and coordinate the activity of other devices(e.g., lights) based on the detected temperature. In this example, thethermostat device may detect a temperature that may indicate that thetemperature outside the home corresponds to daylight hours. Thethermostat device may then convey to the light device that there may bedaylight available to the home and that thus the light should turn off.

In addition to operating these devices efficiently, consumers generallyprefer to use user-friendly devices that involve a minimum amount of setup or initialization. That is, consumers may generally prefer topurchase devices that are fully operational after performing a fewnumber initialization steps that may be performed by almost anyindividual regardless of age or technical expertise.

With the foregoing in mind, to enable to effectively communicate databetween each other within the home environment, the devices may use afabric network that includes one or more logical networks to managecommunication between the devices. That is, the efficient fabric networkmay enable numerous devices within a home to communicate with each otherusing one or more logical networks. The communication network maysupport Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) communication such that eachconnected device may have a unique local address (LA). Moreover, toenable each device to integrate with a home, it may be useful for eachdevice to communicate within the network using low amounts of power.That is, by enabling devices to communicate using low power, the devicesmay be placed anywhere in a home without being coupled to a continuouspower source (e.g., battery-powered).

I. Fabric Introduction

By way of introduction, FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a generaldevice 10 that may that may communicate with other like devices within ahome environment. In one embodiment, the device 10 may include one ormore sensors 12, a user-interface component 14, a power supply 16 (e.g.,including a power connection and/or battery), a network interface 18, aprocessor 20, and the like. Particular sensors 12, user-interfacecomponents 14, and power-supply configurations may be the same orsimilar with each devices 10. However, it should be noted that in someembodiments, each device 10 may include particular sensors 12,user-interface components 14, power-supply configurations, and the likebased on a device type or model.

The sensors 12, in certain embodiments, may detect various propertiessuch as acceleration, temperature, humidity, water, supplied power,proximity, external motion, device motion, sound signals, ultrasoundsignals, light signals, fire, smoke, carbon monoxide,global-positioning-satellite (GPS) signals, radio-frequency (RF), otherelectromagnetic signals or fields, or the like. As such, the sensors 12may include temperature sensor(s), humidity sensor(s), hazard-relatedsensor(s) or other environmental sensor(s), accelerometer(s),microphone(s), optical sensors up to and including camera(s) (e.g.,charged coupled-device or video cameras), active or passive radiationsensors, GPS receiver(s) or radiofrequency identification detector(s).While FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment with a single sensor, manyembodiments may include multiple sensors. In some instances, the device10 may includes one or more primary sensors and one or more secondarysensors. Here, the primary sensor(s) may sense data central to the coreoperation of the device (e.g., sensing a temperature in a thermostat orsensing smoke in a smoke detector), while the secondary sensor(s) maysense other types of data (e.g., motion, light or sound), which can beused for energy-efficiency objectives or smart-operation objectives.

One or more user-interface components 14 in the device 10 may receiveinput from the user and/or present information to the user. Theuser-interface component 14 may also include one or more user-inputcomponents that may receive information from the user. The receivedinput may be used to determine a setting. In certain embodiments, theuser-input components may include a mechanical or virtual component thatresponds to the user's motion. For example, the user can mechanicallymove a sliding component (e.g., along a vertical or horizontal track) orrotate a rotatable ring (e.g., along a circular track), the user'smotion along a touchpad may be detected, or motions/gestures may bedetected using a contactless gesture detection sensor (e.g., infraredsensor or camera). Such motions may correspond to a setting adjustment,which can be determined based on an absolute position of auser-interface component 104 or based on a displacement of auser-interface components 104 (e.g., adjusting a setpoint temperature by1 degree F. for every 10° rotation of a rotatable-ring component).Physically and virtually movable user-input components can allow a userto set a setting along a portion of an apparent continuum. Thus, theuser may not be confined to choose between two discrete options (e.g.,as would be the case if up and down buttons were used) but can quicklyand intuitively define a setting along a range of possible settingvalues. For example, a magnitude of a movement of a user-input componentmay be associated with a magnitude of a setting adjustment, such that auser may dramatically alter a setting with a large movement or finelytune a setting with s small movement.

The user-interface components 14 may also include one or more buttons(e.g., up and down buttons), a keypad, a number pad, a switch, amicrophone, and/or a camera (e.g., to detect gestures). In oneembodiment, the user-input component 14 may include a click-and-rotateannular ring component that may enable the user to interact with thecomponent by rotating the ring (e.g., to adjust a setting) and/or byclicking the ring inwards (e.g., to select an adjusted setting or toselect an option). In another embodiment, the user-input component 14may include a camera that may detect gestures (e.g., to indicate that apower or alarm state of a device is to be changed). In some instances,the device 10 may have one primary input component, which may be used toset various types of settings. The user-interface components 14 may alsobe configured to present information to a user via, e.g., a visualdisplay (e.g., a thin-film-transistor display or organiclight-emitting-diode display) and/or an audio speaker.

The power-supply component 16 may include a power connection and/or alocal battery. For example, the power connection may connect the device10 to a power source such as a line voltage source. In some instances,an AC power source can be used to repeatedly charge a (e.g.,rechargeable) local battery, such that the battery may be used later tosupply power to the device 10 when the AC power source is not available.In certain embodiments, the power supply component 16 may includeintermittent or reduced power connections that may be less than thatprovided via an AC plug in the home. In certain embodiments, deviceswith batteries and/or intermittent or reduced power may be operated as“sleepy devices” that alternate between an online/awake state and anoffline/sleep state to reduce power consumption.

The network interface 18 may include one or more components that enablethe device 10 to communicate between devices using one or more logicalnetworks within the fabric network. In one embodiment, the networkinterface 18 may communicate using an efficient network layer as part ofits Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model. In certain embodiments,one component of the network interface 18 may communicate with onelogical network (e.g., WiFi) and another component of the networkinterface may communicate with another logical network (e.g., 802.15.4).In other words, the network interface 18 may enable the device 10 towirelessly communicate via multiple IPv6 networks. As such, the networkinterface 18 may include a wireless card, Ethernet port, and/or othersuitable transceiver connections.

The processor 20 may support one or more of a variety of differentdevice functionalities. As such, the processor 20 may include one ormore processors configured and programmed to carry out and/or cause tobe carried out one or more of the functionalities described herein. Inone embodiment, the processor 20 may include general-purpose processorscarrying out computer code stored in local memory (e.g., flash memory,hard drive, random access memory), special-purpose processors orapplication-specific integrated circuits, other types ofhardware/firmware/software processing platforms, and/or some combinationthereof. Further, the processor 20 may be implemented as localizedversions or counterparts of algorithms carried out or governed remotelyby central servers or cloud-based systems, such as by virtue of runninga Java virtual machine (JVM) that executes instructions provided from acloud server using Asynchronous Javascript and XML (AJAX) or similarprotocols. By way of example, the processor 20 may detect when alocation (e.g., a house or room) is occupied, up to and includingwhether it is occupied by a specific person or is occupied by a specificnumber of people (e.g., relative to one or more thresholds). In oneembodiment, this detection can occur, e.g., by analyzing microphonesignals, detecting user movements (e.g., in front of a device),detecting openings and closings of doors or garage doors, detectingwireless signals, detecting an IP address of a received signal,detecting operation of one or more devices within a time window, or thelike. Moreover, the processor 20 may include image recognitiontechnology to identify particular occupants or objects.

In some instances, the processor 20 may predict desirable settingsand/or implement those settings. For example, based on presencedetection, the processor 20 may adjust device settings to, e.g.,conserve power when nobody is home or in a particular room or to accordwith user preferences (e.g., general at-home preferences oruser-specific preferences). As another example, based on the detectionof a particular person, animal or object (e.g., a child, pet or lostobject), the processor 20 may initiate an audio or visual indicator ofwhere the person, animal or object is or may initiate an alarm orsecurity feature if an unrecognized person is detected under certainconditions (e.g., at night or when lights are off).

In some instances, devices may interact with each other such that eventsdetected by a first device influences actions of a second device usingone or more common profiles between the devices. For example, a firstdevice can detect that a user has pulled into a garage (e.g., bydetecting motion in the garage, detecting a change in light in thegarage or detecting opening of the garage door). The first device cantransmit this information to a second device via the fabric network,such that the second device can, e.g., adjust a home temperaturesetting, a light setting, a music setting, and/or a security-alarmsetting. As another example, a first device can detect a userapproaching a front door (e.g., by detecting motion or sudden lightpattern changes). The first device may cause a general audio or visualsignal to be presented (e.g., such as sounding of a doorbell) or cause alocation-specific audio or visual signal to be presented (e.g., toannounce the visitor's presence within a room that a user is occupying).

With the foregoing in mind, FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a homeenvironment 30 in which the device 10 of FIG. 1 may communicate withother devices via the fabric network. The depicted home environment 30may include a structure 32 such as a house, office building, garage, ormobile home. It will be appreciated that devices can also be integratedinto a home environment that does not include an entire structure 32,such as an apartment, condominium, office space, or the like. Further,the home environment 30 may control and/or be coupled to devices outsideof the actual structure 32. Indeed, several devices in the homeenvironment 30 need not physically be within the structure 32 at all.For example, a device controlling a pool heater 34 or irrigation system36 may be located outside of the structure 32.

The depicted structure 32 includes multiple rooms 38, separated at leastpartly from each other via walls 40. The walls 40 can include interiorwalls or exterior walls. Each room 38 can further include a floor 42 anda ceiling 44. Devices can be mounted on, integrated with and/orsupported by the wall 40, the floor 42, or the ceiling 44.

The home environment 30 may include multiple devices, includingintelligent, multi-sensing, network-connected devices that may integrateseamlessly with each other and/or with cloud-based server systems toprovide any of a variety of useful home objectives. One, more or each ofthe devices illustrated in the home environment 30 may include one ormore sensors 12, a user interface 14, a power supply 16, a networkinterface 18, a processor 20 and the like.

Example devices 10 may include a network-connected thermostat 46 thatmay detect ambient climate characteristics (e.g., temperature and/orhumidity) and control a heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC)system 48. Another example device 10 may include a hazard detection unit50 that can detect the presence of a hazardous substance and/or ahazardous condition in the home environment 30 (e.g., smoke, fire, orcarbon monoxide). Additionally, entryway interface devices 52, which canbe termed a “smart doorbell”, can detect a person's approach to ordeparture from a location, control audible functionality, announce aperson's approach or departure via audio or visual means, or controlsettings on a security system (e.g., to activate or deactivate thesecurity system).

In certain embodiments, the device 10 may include a light switch 54 thatmay detect ambient lighting conditions, detect room-occupancy states,and control a power and/or dim state of one or more lights. In someinstances, the light switches 54 may control a power state or speed of afan, such as a ceiling fan.

Additionally, wall plug interfaces 56 may detect occupancy of a room orenclosure and control supply of power to one or more wall plugs (e.g.,such that power is not supplied to the plug if nobody is at home). Thedevice 10 within the home environment 30 may further include anappliance 58, such as refrigerators, stoves and/or ovens, televisions,washers, dryers, lights (inside and/or outside the structure 32),stereos, intercom systems, garage-door openers, floor fans, ceilingfans, whole-house fans, wall air conditioners, pool heaters 34,irrigation systems 36, security systems, and so forth. Whiledescriptions of FIG. 2 may identify specific sensors and functionalitiesassociated with specific devices, it will be appreciated that any of avariety of sensors and functionalities (such as those describedthroughout the specification) may be integrated into the device 10.

In addition to containing processing and sensing capabilities, each ofthe example devices described above may be capable of datacommunications and information sharing with any other device, as well asto any cloud server or any other device that is network-connectedanywhere in the world. In one embodiment, the devices 10 may send andreceive communications via a fabric network discussed below. In oneembodiment, fabric may enable the devices 10 to communicate with eachother via one or more logical networks. As such, certain devices mayserve as wireless repeaters and/or may function as bridges betweendevices, services, and/or logical networks in the home environment thatmay not be directly connected (i.e., one hop) to each other.

In one embodiment, a wireless router 60 may further communicate with thedevices 10 in the home environment 30 via one or more logical networks(e.g., WiFi). The wireless router 60 may then communicate with theInternet 62 or other network such that each device 10 may communicatewith a remote service or a cloud-computing system 64 through theInternet 62. The cloud-computing system 64 may be associated with amanufacturer, support entity or service provider associated with aparticular device 10. As such, in one embodiment, a user may contactcustomer support using a device itself rather than using some othercommunication means such as a telephone or Internet-connected computer.Further, software updates can be automatically sent from thecloud-computing system 64 or devices in the home environment 30 to otherdevices in the fabric (e.g., when available, when purchased, whenrequested, or at routine intervals).

By virtue of network connectivity, one or more of the devices 10 mayfurther allow a user to interact with the device even if the user is notproximate to the device. For example, a user may communicate with adevice using a computer (e.g., a desktop computer, laptop computer, ortablet) or other portable electronic device (e.g., a smartphone) 66. Awebpage or application may receive communications from the user andcontrol the device 10 based on the received communications. Moreover,the webpage or application may present information about the device'soperation to the user. For example, the user can view a current setpointtemperature for a device and adjust it using a computer that may beconnected to the Internet 62. In this example, the thermostat 46 mayreceive the current setpoint temperature view request via the fabricnetwork via one or more underlying logical networks.

In certain embodiments, the home environment 30 may also include avariety of non-communicating legacy appliances 68, such as oldconventional washer/dryers, refrigerators, and the like which can becontrolled, albeit coarsely (ON/OFF), by virtue of the wall pluginterfaces 56. The home environment 30 may further include a variety ofpartially communicating legacy appliances 70, such as infra-red (IR)controlled wall air conditioners or other IR-controlled devices, whichcan be controlled by IR signals provided by the hazard detection units50 or the light switches 54.

As mentioned above, each of the example devices 10 described above mayform a portion of a fabric network. Generally, the fabric network may bepart of an Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model 90 as depicted inFIG. 4. The OSI model 90 illustrates functions of a communication systemwith respect to abstraction layers. That is, the OSI model may specify anetworking framework or how communications between devices may beimplemented. In one embodiment, the OSI model may include six layers: aphysical layer 92, a data link layer 94, a network layer 96, a transportlayer 98, a platform layer 100, and an application layer 102. Generally,each layer in the OSI model 90 may serve the layer above it and may beserved by the layer below it.

Keeping this in mind, the physical layer 92 may provide hardwarespecifications for devices that may communicate with each other. Assuch, the physical layer 92 may establish how devices may connect toeach other, assist in managing how communication resources may be sharedbetween devices, and the like.

The data link layer 94 may specify how data may be transferred betweendevices. Generally, the data link layer 94 may provide a way in whichdata packets being transmitted may be encoded and decoded into bits aspart of a transmission protocol.

The network layer 96 may specify how the data being transferred to adestination node is routed. The network layer 96 may also provide asecurity protocol that may maintain the integrity of the data beingtransferred. The efficient network layer discussed above corresponds tothe network layer 96. In certain embodiments, the network layer 96 maybe completely independent of the platform layer 100 and include anysuitable IPv6 network type (e.g., WiFi, Ethernet, HomePlug, 802.15.4,etc).

The transport layer 98 may specify a transparent transfer of the datafrom a source node to a destination node. The transport layer 98 mayalso control how the transparent transfer of the data remains reliable.As such, the transport layer 98 may be used to verify that data packetsintended to transfer to the destination node indeed reached thedestination node. Example protocols that may be employed in thetransport layer 98 may include Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) andUser Datagram Protocol (UDP).

The platform layer 100 includes the fabric network and establishesconnections between devices according to the protocol specified withinthe transport layer 98 and may be agnostic of the network type used inthe network layer 96. The platform layer 100 may also translate the datapackets into a form that the application layer 102 may use. Theapplication layer 102 may support a software application that maydirectly interface with the user. As such, the application layer 102 mayimplement protocols defined by the software application. For example,the software application may provide serves such as file transfers,electronic mail, and the like.

II. Fabric Device Interconnection

As discussed above, a fabric may be implemented using one or moresuitable communications protocols, such as IPv6 protocols. In fact, thefabric may be partially or completely agnostic to the underlyingtechnologies (e.g., network types or communication protocols) used toimplement the fabric. Within the one or more communications protocols,the fabric may be implemented using one or more network types used tocommunicatively couple electrical devices using wireless or wiredconnections. For example, certain embodiments of the fabric may includeEthernet, WiFi, 802.15.4, ZigBee®, ISA100.11a, WirelessHART, MiWi™,power-line networks, and/or other suitable network types. Within thefabric devices (e.g., nodes) can exchange packets of information withother devices (e.g., nodes) in the fabric, either directly or viaintermediary nodes, such as intelligent thermostats, acting as IProuters. These nodes may include manufacturer devices (e.g., thermostatsand smoke detectors) and/or customer devices (e.g., phones, tablets,computers, etc.). Additionally, some devices may be “always on” andcontinuously powered using electrical connections. Other devices mayhave partially reduced power usage (e.g., medium duty cycle) using areduced/intermittent power connection, such as a thermostat or doorbellpower connection. Finally, some devices may have a short duty cycle andrun solely on battery power. In other words, in certain embodiments, thefabric may include heterogeneous devices that may be connected to one ormore sub-networks according to connection type and/or desired powerusage. FIGS. A-C illustrate three embodiments that may be used toconnect electrical devices via one or more sub-networks in the fabric.

A. Single Network Topology

FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment of the fabric 1000 having a singlenetwork topology. As illustrated, the fabric 1000 includes a singlelogical network 1002. The network 1002 could include Ethernet, WiFi,802.15.4, power-line networks, and/or other suitable network types inthe IPv6 protocols. In fact, in some embodiments where the network 1002includes a WiFi or Ethernet network, the network 1002 may span multipleWiFi and/or Ethernet segments that are bridged at a link layer.

The network 1002 includes one or more nodes 1004, 1006, 1008, 1010,1012, 1014, and 1016, referred to collectively as 1004-1016. Althoughthe illustrated network 1002 includes seven nodes, certain embodimentsof the network 1002 may include one or more nodes interconnected usingthe network 1002. Moreover, if the network 1002 is a WiFi network, eachof the nodes 1004-1016 may be interconnected using the node 1016 (e.g.,WiFi router) and/or paired with other nodes using WiFi Direct (i.e.,WiFi P2P).

B. Star Network Topology

FIG. 5 illustrates an alternative embodiment of fabric 1000 as a fabric1018 having a star network topology. The fabric 1018 includes a hubnetwork 1020 that joins together two periphery networks 1022 and 1024.The hub network 1020 may include a home network, such as WiFi/Ethernetnetwork or power line network. The periphery networks 1022 and 1024 mayadditional network connection types different of different types thanthe hub network 1020. For example, in some embodiments, the hub network1020 may be a WiFi/Ethernet network, the periphery network 1022 mayinclude an 802.15.4 network, and the periphery network 1024 may includea power line network, a ZigBee® network, a ISA100.11a network, aWirelessHART, network, or a MiWi™ network. Moreover, although theillustrated embodiment of the fabric 1018 includes three networks,certain embodiments of the fabric 1018 may include any number ofnetworks, such as 2, 3, 4, 5, or more networks. In fact, someembodiments of the fabric 1018 include multiple periphery networks ofthe same type.

Although the illustrated fabric 1018 includes fourteen nodes, eachreferred to individually by reference numbers 1024-1052, respectively,it should be understood that the fabric 1018 may include any number ofnodes. Communication within each network 1020, 1022, or 1024, may occurdirectly between devices and/or through an access point, such as node1042 in a WiFi/Ethernet network. Communications between peripherynetwork 1022 and 1024 passes through the hub network 1020 usinginter-network routing nodes. For example, in the illustrated embodiment,nodes 1034 and 1036 are be connected to the periphery network 1022 usinga first network connection type (e.g., 802.15.4) and to the hub network1020 using a second network connection type (e.g., WiFi) while the node1044 is connected to the hub network 1020 using the second networkconnection type and to the periphery network 1024 using a third networkconnection type (e.g., power line). For example, a message sent fromnode 1026 to node 1052 may pass through nodes 1028, 1030, 1032, 1036,1042, 1044, 1048, and 1050 in transit to node 1052.

C. Overlapping Networks Topology

FIG. 6 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the fabric 1000 as afabric 1054 having an overlapping networks topology. The fabric 1054includes networks 1056 and 1058. As illustrated, each of the nodes 1062,1064, 1066, 1068, 1070, and 1072 may be connected to each of thenetworks. In other embodiments, the node 1072 may include an accesspoint for an Ethernet/WiFi network rather than an end point and may notbe present on either the network 1056 or network 1058, whichever is notthe Ethernet/WiFi network. Accordingly, a communication from node 1062to node 1068 may be passed through network 1056, network 1058, or somecombination thereof. In the illustrated embodiment, each node cancommunicate with any other node via any network using any networkdesired. Accordingly, unlike the star network topology of FIG. 5, theoverlapping networks topology may communicate directly between nodes viaany network without using inter-network routing.

D. Fabric Network Connection to Services

In addition to communications between devices within the home, a fabric(e.g., fabric 1000) may include services that may be located physicallynear other devices in the fabric or physically remote from such devices.The fabric connects to these services through one or more service endpoints. FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of a service 1074 communicatingwith fabrics 1076, 1078, and 1080. The service 1074 may include variousservices that may be used by devices in fabrics 1076, 1078, and/or 1080.For example, in some embodiments, the service 1074 may be a time of dayservice that supplies a time of day to devices, a weather service toprovide various weather data (e.g., outside temperature, sunset, windinformation, weather forecast, etc.), an echo service that “pings” eachdevice, data management services, device management services, and/orother suitable services. As illustrated, the service 1074 may include aserver 1082 (e.g., web server) that stores/accesses relevant data andpasses the information through a service end point 1084 to one or moreend points 1086 in a fabric, such as fabric 1076. Although theillustrated embodiment only includes three fabrics with a single server1082, it should be appreciated that the service 1074 may connect to anynumber of fabrics and may include servers in addition to the server 1082and/or connections to additional services.

In certain embodiments, the service 1074 may also connect to a consumerdevice 1088, such as a phone, tablet, and/or computer. The consumerdevice 1088 may be used to connect to the service 1074 via a fabric,such as fabric 1076, an Internet connection, and/or some other suitableconnection method. The consumer device 1088 may be used to access datafrom one or more end points (e.g., electronic devices) in a fabriceither directly through the fabric or via the service 1074. In otherwords, using the service 1074, the consumer device 1088 may be used toaccess/manage devices in a fabric remotely from the fabric.

E. Communication Between Devices in a Fabric

As discussed above, each electronic device or node may communicate withany other node in the fabric, either directly or indirectly dependingupon fabric topology and network connection types. Additionally, somedevices (e.g., remote devices) may communicate through a service tocommunicate with other devices in the fabric. FIG. 8 illustrates anembodiment of a communication 1090 between two devices 1092 and 1094.The communication 1090 may span one or more networks either directly orindirectly through additional devices and/or services, as describedabove. Additionally, the communication 1090 may occur over anappropriate communication protocol, such as IPv6, using one or moretransport protocols. For example, in some embodiments the communication1090 may include using the transmission control protocol (TCP) and/orthe user datagram protocol (UDP). In some embodiments, the device 1092may transmit a first signal 1096 to the device 1094 using aconnectionless protocol (e.g., UDP). In certain embodiments, the device1092 may communicate with the device 1094 using a connection-orientedprotocol (e.g., TCP). Although the illustrated communication 1090 isdepicted as a bi-directional connection, in some embodiments, thecommunication 1090 may be a uni-directional broadcast.

i. Unique Local Address

As discussed above, data transmitted within a fabric received by a nodemay be redirected or passed through the node to another node dependingon the desired target for the communication. In some embodiments, thetransmission of the data may be intended to be broadcast to all devices.In such embodiments, the data may be retransmitted without furtherprocessing to determine whether the data should be passed along toanother node. However, some data may be directed to a specific endpoint.To enable addressed messages to be transmitted to desired endpoints,nodes may be assigned identification information.

Each node may be assigned a set of link-local addresses (LLA), oneassigned to each network interface. These LLAs may be used tocommunicate with other nodes on the same network. Additionally, the LLAsmay be used for various communication procedures, such as IPv6 NeighborDiscovery Protocol. In addition to LLAs, each node is assigned a uniquelocal address (ULA).

FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment of a unique local address (ULA) 1098that may be used to address each node in the fabric. In certainembodiments, the ULA 1098 may be formatted as an IPv6 address formatcontaining 128 bits divided into a global ID 1100, a subnet ID 1102, andan interface ID 1104. The global ID 1100 includes 40 bits and the subnetID 1102 includes 16 bits. The global ID 1100 and subnet ID 1102 togetherform a fabric ID 1103 for the fabric.

The fabric ID 1103 is a unique 64-bit identifier used to identify afabric. The fabric ID 1103 may be generated at creation of theassociated fabric using a pseudo-random algorithm. For example, thepseudo-random algorithm may 1) obtain the current time of day in 64-bitNTP format, 2) obtain the interface ID 1104 for the device, 3)concatenate the time of day with the interface ID 1104 to create a key,4) compute and SHA-1 digest on the key resulting in 160 bits, 5) use theleast significant 40 bits as the global ID 1100, and 6) concatenate theULA and set the least significant bit to 1 to create the fabric ID 1103.In certain embodiments, once the fabric ID 1103 is created with thefabric, the fabric ID 1103 remains until the fabric is dissolved.

The global ID 1100 identifies the fabric to which the node belongs. Thesubnet ID 1102 identifies logical networks within the fabric. The subnetID F3 may be assigned monotonically starting at one with the addition ofeach new logical network to the fabric. For example, a WiFi network maybe identified with a hex value of 0x01, and a later connected 802.15.4network may be identified with a hex value of 0x02 continuing onincrementally upon the connection of each new network to the fabric.

Finally, the ULA 1098 includes an interface ID 1104 that includes 64bits. The interface ID 1104 may be assigned using a globally-unique64-bit identifier according to the IEEE EUI-64 standard. For example,devices with IEEE 802 network interfaces may derive the interface ID1104 using a burned-in MAC address for the devices “primary interface.”In some embodiments, the designation of which interface is the primaryinterface may be determined arbitrarily. In other embodiments, aninterface type (e.g., WiFi) may be deemed the primary interface, whenpresent. If the MAC address for the primary interface of a device is 48bits rather than 64-bit, the 48-bit MAC address may be converted to aEUI-64 value via encapsulation (e.g., organizationally unique identifierencapsulating). In consumer devices (e.g., phones or computers), theinterface ID 1104 may be assigned by the consumer devices' localoperating systems.

ii. Routing Transmissions Between Logical Networks

As discussed above in relation to a star network topology, inter-networkrouting may occur in communication between two devices across logicalnetworks. In some embodiments, inter-network routing is based on thesubnet ID 1102. Each inter-networking node (e.g., node 1034 of FIG. 5)may maintain a list of other routing nodes (e.g., node B 14 of FIG. 5)on the hub network 1020 and their respective attached periphery networks(e.g., periphery network 1024 of FIG. 5). When a packet arrivesaddressed to a node other than the routing node itself, the destinationaddress (e.g., address for node 1052 of FIG. 5) is compared to the listof network prefixes and a routing node (e.g., node 1044) is selectedthat is attached to the desired network (e.g., periphery network 1024).The packet is then forwarded to the selected routing node. If multiplenodes (e.g., 1034 and 1036) are attached to the same periphery network,routing nodes are selected in an alternating fashion.

Additionally, inter-network routing nodes may regularly transmitNeighbor Discovery Protocol (NDP) router advertisement messages on thehub network to alert consumer devices to the existence of the hubnetwork and allow them to acquire the subnet prefix. The routeradvertisements may include include one or more route information optionsto assist in routing information in the fabric. For example, these routeinformation options may inform consumer devices of the existence of theperiphery networks and how to route packets the periphery networks.

In addition to, or in place of route information options, routing nodesmay act as proxies to provide a connection between consumer devices anddevices in periphery networks, such as the process 1105 as illustratedin FIG. 10. As illustrated, the process 1105 includes each peripherynetwork device being assigned a virtual address on the hub network bycombining the subnet ID 1102 with the interface ID 1104 for the deviceon the periphery network (block 1106). To proxy using the virtualaddresses, routing nodes maintain a list of all periphery nodes in thefabric that are directly reachable via one of its interfaces (block1108). The routing nodes listen on the hub network for neighborsolicitation messages requesting the link address of a periphery nodeusing its virtual address (block 1110). Upon receiving such a message,the routing node attempts to assign the virtual address to its hubinterface after a period of time (block 1112). As part of theassignment, the routing node performs duplicate address detection so asto block proxying of the virtual address by more than one routing node.After the assignment, the routing node responds to the neighborsolicitation message and receives the packet (block 1114). Uponreceiving the packet, the routing node rewrites the destination addressto be the real address of the periphery node (block 1116) and forwardsthe message to the appropriate interface (block 1118).

iii. Consumer Devices Connecting to a Fabric

To join a fabric, a consumer device may discover an address of a nodealready in the fabric that the consumer device wants to join.Additionally, if the consumer device has been disconnected from a fabricfor an extended period of time may need to rediscover nodes on thenetwork if the fabric topology/layout has changed. To aid indiscovery/rediscovery, fabric devices on the hub network may publishDomain Name System-Service Discovery (DNS-SD) records via mDNS thatadvertise the presence of the fabric and provide addresses to theconsumer device

III. Data Transmitted in the Fabric

After creation of a fabric and address creation for the nodes, data maybe transmitted through the fabric. Data passed through the fabric may bearranged in a format common to all messages and/or common to specifictypes of conversations in the fabric. In some embodiments, the messageformat may enable one-to-one mapping to JavaScript Object Notation(JSON) using a TLV serialization format discussed below. Additionally,although the following data frames are described as including specificsizes, it should be noted that lengths of the data fields in the dataframes may be varied to other suitable bit-lengths.

It should be understood that each of the following data frames,profiles, and/or formats discussed below may be stored in memory (e.g.,memory of the device 10) prior to and/or after transmission of amessage. In other words, although the data frame, profiles, and formatsmay be generally discussed as transmissions of data, they may also bephysically stored (e.g., in a buffer) before, during, and/or aftertransmission of the data frame, profiles, and/or formats. Moreover, thefollowing data frames, profiles, schemas, and/or formats may be storedon a non-transitory, computer-readable medium that allows an electronicdevice to access the data frames, profiles, schemas, and/or formats. Forexample, instructions for formatting the data frames, profiles, schemas,and/or formats may be stored in any suitable computer-readable medium,such as in memory for the device 10, memory of another device, aportable memory device (e.g., compact disc, flash drive, etc.), or othersuitable physical device suitable for storing the data frames, profiles,schemas, and/or formats.

A. Security

Along with data intended to be transferred, the fabric may transfer thedata with additional security measures such as encryption, messageintegrity checks, and digital signatures. In some embodiments, a levelof security supported for a device may vary according to physicalsecurity of the device and/or capabilities of the device. In certainembodiments, messages sent between nodes in the fabric may be encryptedusing the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) block cipher operating incounter mode (AES-CTR) with a 128-bit key. As discussed below, eachmessage contains a 32-bit message id. The message id may be combinedwith a sending nodes id to form a nonce for the AES-CTR algorithm. The32-bit counter enables 4 billion messages to be encrypted and sent byeach node before a new key is negotiated.

In some embodiments, the fabric may insure message integrity using amessage authentication code, such as HMAC-SHA-1, that may be included ineach encrypted message. In some embodiments, the message authenticationcode may be generated using a 160-bit message integrity key that ispaired one-to-one with the encryption key. Additionally, each node maycheck the message id of incoming messages against a list of recentlyreceived ids maintained on a node-by-node basis to block replay of themessages.

B. Tag Length Value (TLV) Formatting

To reduce power consumption, it is desirable to send at least a portionof the data sent over the fabric that compactly while enabling the datacontainers to flexibly represents data that accommodates skipping datathat is not recognized or understood by skipping to the next location ofdata that is understood within a serialization of the data. In certainembodiments, tag-length-value (TLV) formatting may be used to compactlyand flexibly encode/decode data. By storing at least a portion of thetransmitted data in TLV, the data may be compactly and flexiblystored/sent along with low encode/decode and memory overhead, asdiscussed below in reference to Table 7. In certain embodiments, TLV maybe used for some data as flexible, extensible data, but other portionsof data that is not extensible may be stored and sent in an understoodstandard protocol data unit (PDU).

Data formatted in a TLV format may be encoded as TLV elements of varioustypes, such as primitive types and container types. Primitive typesinclude data values in certain formats, such as integers or strings. Forexample, the TLV format may encode: 1, 2, 3, 4, or 8 bytesigned/unsigned integers, UTF-8 strings, byte strings,single/double-precision floating numbers (e.g., IEEE 754-1985 format),boolean, null, and other suitable data format types. Container typesinclude collections of elements that are then sub-classified ascontainer or primitive types. Container types may be classified intovarious categories, such as dictionaries, arrays, paths or othersuitable types for grouping TLV elements, known as members. A dictionaryis a collection of members each having distinct definitions and uniquetags within the dictionary. An array is an ordered collection of memberswith implied definitions or no distinct definitions. A path is anordered collection of members that described how to traverse a tree ofTLV elements.

As illustrated in FIG. 11, an embodiment of a TLV packet 1120 includesthree data fields: a tag field 1122, a length field 1124, and a valuefield 1126. Although the illustrated fields 1122, 1124, and 1126 areillustrated as approximately equivalent in size, the size of each fieldmay be variable and vary in size in relation to each other. In otherembodiments, the TLV packet 1120 may further include a control bytebefore the tag field 1122.

In embodiments having the control byte, the control byte may besub-divided into an element type field and a tag control field. In someembodiments, the element type field includes 5 lower bits of the controlbyte and the tag control field occupies the upper 3 bits. The elementtype field indicates the TLV element's type as well as the how thelength field 1124 and value field 1126 are encoded. In certainembodiments, the element type field also encodes Boolean values and/ornull values for the TLV. For example, an embodiment of an enumeration ofelement type field is provided in Table 1 below.

TABLE 1 Example element type field values. 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0Signed Integer, 1 byte value 0 0 0 0 1 Signed Integer, 2 byte value 0 00 1 0 Signed Integer, 4 byte value 0 0 0 1 1 Signed Integer, 8 bytevalue 0 0 1 0 0 Unsigned Integer, 1 byte value 0 0 1 0 1 UnsignedInteger, 2 byte value 0 0 1 1 0 Unsigned Integer, 4 byte value 0 0 1 1 1Unsigned Integer, 8 byte value 0 1 0 0 0 Boolean False 0 1 0 0 1 BooleanTrue 0 1 0 1 0 Floating Point Number, 4 byte value 0 1 0 1 1 FloatingPoint Number, 8 byte value 0 1 1 0 0 UTF8-String, 1 byte length 0 1 1 01 UTF8-String, 2 byte length 0 1 1 1 0 UTF8-String, 4 byte length 0 1 11 1 UTF8-String, 8 byte length 1 0 0 0 0 Byte String, 1 byte length 1 00 0 1 Byte String, 2 byte length 1 0 0 1 0 Byte String, 4 byte length 10 0 1 1 Byte String, 8 byte length 1 0 1 0 0 Null 1 0 1 0 1 Dictionary 10 1 1 0 Array 1 0 1 1 1 Path 1 1 0 0 0 End of ContainerThe tag control field indicates a form of the tag in the tag field 1122assigned to the TLV element (including a zero-length tag). Examples, oftag control field values are provided in Table 2 below.

TABLE 2 Example values for tag control field. 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 0 0 0Anonymous, 0 bytes 0 0 1 Context-specific Tag, 1 byte 0 1 0 Core ProfileTag, 2 bytes 0 1 1 Core Profile Tag, 4 bytes 1 0 0 Implicit Profile Tag,2 bytes 1 0 1 Implicit Profile Tag, 4 bytes 1 1 0 Fully-qualified Tag, 6bytes 1 1 1 Fully-qualified Tag, 8 bytesIn other words, in embodiments having a control byte, the control bytemay indicate a length of the tag.

In certain embodiments, the tag field 1122 may include zero to eightbytes, such as eight, sixteen, thirty two, or sixty four bits. In someembodiments, the tag of the tag field may be classified asprofile-specific tags or context-specific tags. Profile-specific tagsidentify elements globally using a vendor Id, a profile Id, and/or tagnumber as discussed below. Context-specific tags identify TLV elementswithin a context of a containing dictionary element and may include asingle-byte tag number. Since context-specific tags are defined incontext of their containers, a single context-specific tag may havedifferent interpretations when included in different containers. In someembodiments, the context may also be derived from nested containers.

In embodiments having the control byte, the tag length is encoded in thetag control field and the tag field 1122 includes a possible threefields: a vendor Id field, a profile Id field, and a tag number field.In the fully-qualified form, the encoded tag field 1122 includes allthree fields with the tag number field including 16 or 32 bitsdetermined by the tag control field. In the implicit form, the tagincludes only the tag number, and the vendor Id and profile number areinferred from the protocol context of the TLV element. The core profileform includes profile-specific tags, as discussed above.Context-specific tags are encoded as a single byte conveying the tagnumber. Anonymous elements have zero-length tag fields 1122.

In some embodiments without a control byte, two bits may indicate alength of the tag field 1122, two bits may indicate a length of thelength field 1124, and four bits may indicate a type of informationstored in the value field 1126. An example of possible encoding for theupper 8 bits for the tag field is illustrated below in Table 3.

TABLE 3 Tag field of a TLV packet Byte 0 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Description 0 0— — — — — — Tag is 8 bits 0 1 — — — — — — Tag is 16 bits 1 0 — — — — — —Tag is 32 bits 1 1 — — — — — — Tag is 64 bits — — 0 0 — — — — Length is8 bits — — 0 1 — — — — Length is 16 bits — — 1 0 — — — — Length is 32bits — — 1 1 — — — — Length is 64 bits — — 0 0 0 0 Boolean — — 0 0 0 1Fixed 8-bit Unsigned — — 0 0 1 0 Fixed 8-bit Signed — — 0 0 1 1 Fixed16-bit Unsigned — — 0 1 0 0 Fixed 16-bit Signed — — 0 1 0 1 Fixed 32-bitUnsigned — — 0 1 1 0 Fixed 32-bit Signed — — 0 1 1 1 Fixed 64-bitUnsigned — — 1 0 0 0 Fixed 64-bit Signed — — 1 0 0 1 32-bit FloatingPoint — — 1 0 1 0 64-bit Floating Point — — 1 0 1 1 UTF-8 String — — 1 10 0 Opaque Data — — 1 1 0 1 ContainerAs illustrated in Table 3, the upper 8 bits of the tag field 1122 may beused to encode information about the tag field 1122, length field 1124,and the value field 1126, such that the tag field 112 may be used todetermine length for the tag field 122 and the length fields 1124.Remaining bits in the tag field 1122 may be made available foruser-allocated and/or user-assigned tag values.

The length field 1124 may include eight, sixteen, thirty two, or sixtyfour bits as indicated by the tag field 1122 as illustrated in Table 3or the element field as illustrated in Table 2. Moreover, the lengthfield 1124 may include an unsigned integer that represents a length ofthe encoded in the value field 1126. In some embodiments, the length maybe selected by a device sending the TLV element. The value field 1126includes the payload data to be decoded, but interpretation of the valuefield 1126 may depend upon the tag length fields, and/or control byte.For example, a TLV packet without a control byte including an 8 bit tagis illustrated in Table 4 below for illustration.

TABLE 4 Example of a TLV packet including an 8-bit tag Tag Length ValueDescription 0 × 0d 0 × 24 0 × 09 0 × 04 0 × 42 95 00 00 74.5 0 × 09 0 ×04 0 × 42 98 66 66 76.2 0 × 09 0 × 04 0 × 42 94 99 9a 74.3 0 × 09 0 × 040 × 42 98 99 9a 76.3 0 × 09 0 × 04 0 × 42 95 33 33 74.6 0 × 09 0 × 04 0× 42 98 33 33 76.1As illustrated in Table 4, the first line indicates that the tag field1122 and the length field 1124 each have a length of 8 bits.Additionally, the tag field 1122 indicates that the tag type is for thefirst line is a container (e.g., the TLV packet). The tag field 1124 forlines two through six indicate that each entry in the TLV packet has atag field 1122 and length field 1124 consisting of 8 bits each.Additionally, the tag field 1124 indicates that each entry in the TLVpacket has a value field 1126 that includes a 32-bit floating point.Each entry in the value field 1126 corresponds to a floating number thatmay be decoded using the corresponding tag field 1122 and length field1124 information. As illustrated in this example, each entry in thevalue field 1126 corresponds to a temperature in Fahrenheit. As can beunderstood, by storing data in a TLV packet as described above, data maybe transferred compactly while remaining flexible for varying lengthsand information as may be used by different devices in the fabric.Moreover, in some embodiments, multi-byte integer fields may betransmitted in little-endian order or big-endian order.

By transmitting TLV packets in using an order protocol (e.g.,little-endian) that may be used by sending/receiving device formats(e.g., JSON), data transferred between nodes may be transmitted in theorder protocol used by at least one of the nodes (e.g., little endian).For example, if one or more nodes include ARM or ix86 processors,transmissions between the nodes may be transmitted using little-endianbyte ordering to reduce the use of byte reordering. By reducing theinclusion of byte reordering, the TLV format enable devices tocommunicate using less power than a transmission that uses bytereordering on both ends of the transmission. Furthermore, TLV formattingmay be specified to provide a one-to-one translation between other datastorage techniques, such as JSON+ Extensible Markup Language (XML). Asan example, the TLV format may be used to represent the following XMLProperty List:

<?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“UTF-8”?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC “-//AppleComputer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN”“http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd”> <plist version=“1.0”><dict>  <key>OfflineMode</key>  <false/>  <key>Network</key>  <dict>  <key>IPv4</key>   <dict>     <key>Method</key>    <string>dhcp</string>   </dict>   <key>IPv6</key>   <dict>    <key>Method</key>     <string>auto</string>   </dict>  </dict> <key>Technologies</key>  <dict>   <key>wifi</key>   <dict>    <key>Enabled</key>     <true/>     <key>Devices</key>     <dict>      <key>wifi_18b4300008b027</key>       <dict>      <key>Enabled</key>       <true/>     </dict>    </dict>   <key>Services</key>    <array>    <string>wifi_18b4300008b027_3939382d33204     16c70696e652054657272616365</string>    </array>   </dict>   <key>802.15.4</key>   <dict>   <key>Enabled</key>    <true/>    <key>Devices</key>    <dict>    <key>802.15.4_18b43000000002fac4</key>     <dict>      <key>Enabled</key>       <true/>     </dict>    </dict>   <key>Services</key>    <array>    <string>802.15.4_18b43000000002fac4_3    939382d3320416c70696e6520546572</string>    </array>   </dict> </dict>  <key>Services</key>  <dict> <key>wifi_18b4300008b027_3939382d3320416c70696e6520546572 72616365</key>   <dict>    <key>Name</key>    <string>998-3 AlpineTerrace</string>    <key>SSID</key>   <data>3939382d3320416c70696e652054657272616365    </data>   <key>Frequency</key>    <integer>2462</integer>   <key>AutoConnect</key>    <true/>    <key>Favorite</key>    <true/>   <key>Error</key>    <string/>    <key>Network</key>    <dict>    <key>IPv4</key>     <dict>       <key>DHCP</key>       <dict>        <key>LastAddress</key>         <data>0a02001e</data>      </dict>     </dict>     <key>IPv6</key>    <dict/>   </dict>  </dict>   <key>802.15.4_18b43000000002fac4_3939382d3320416c70696e  6520546572</key>   <dict>    <key>Name</key>    <string>998-3 AlpineTer</string>    <key>EPANID</key>   <data>3939382d3320416c70696e6520546572</data>    <key>Frequency</key>   <integer>2412</integer>    <key>AutoConnect</key>    <true/>   <key>Favorite</key>    <true/>    <key>Error</key>    <string/>   <key>Network</key>    <dict/>   </dict>  </dict> </dict> </plistAs an example, the above property list may be represented in tags of theabove described TLV format (without a control byte) according to Table 5below.

TABLE 5 Example representation of the XML Property List in TLV formatXML Key Tag Type Tag Number OfflineMode Boolean 1 IPv4 Container 3 IPv6Container 4 Method String 5 Technologies Container 6 WiFi Container 7802.15.4 Container 8 Enabled Boolean 9 Devices Container 10 ID String 11Services Container 12 Name String 13 SSID Data 14 EPANID Data 15Frequency 16-bit Unsigned 16 AutoConnect Boolean 17 Favorite Boolean 18Error String 19 DHCP String 20 LastAddress Data 21 Device Container 22Service Container 23Similarly, Table 6 illustrates an example of literal tag, length, andvalue representations for the example XML Property List.

TABLE 6 Example of literal values for tag, length, and value fields forXML Property List Tag Length Value Description 0 × 40 01 0 × 01 0OfflineMode 0 × 4d 02 0 × 14 Network 0 × 4d 03 0 × 07 Network.IPv4 0 ×4b 05 0 × 04 “dhcp” Network.IPv4.Method 0 × 4d 04 0 × 07 Network.IPv6 0× 4b 05 0 × 04 “auto” Network.IPv6.Method 0 × 4d 06 0 × d6 Technologies0 × 4d 07 0 × 65 Technologies.wifi 0 × 40 09 0 × 01 1Technologies.wifi.Enabled 0 × 4d 0a 0 × 5e Technologies.wifi.Devices 0 ×4d 16 0 × 5b Technologies.wifi.Devices.Device.[0] 0 × 4b 0b 0 × 13“wifi_18b43 . . . ” Technologies.wifi.Devices.Device.[0].ID 0 × 40 09 0× 01 1 Technologies.wifi.Devices.Device.[0].Enabled 0 × 4d 0c 0 × 3eTechnologies.wifi.Devices.Device.[0].Services 0 × 0b 0 × 3c “wifi_18b43. . . ” Technologies.wifi.Devices.Device.[0].Services.[0] 0 × 4d 08 0 ×6b Technologies.802.15.4 0 × 40 09 0 × 01 1Technologies.802.15.4.Enabled 0 × 4d 0a 0 × 64Technologies.802.15.4.Devices 0 × 4d 16 0 × 61Technologies.802.15.4.Devices.Device.[0] 0 × 4b 0b 0 × 1a “802.15.4_18 .. . ” Technologies.802.15.4.Devices.Device.[0].ID 0 × 40 09 0 × 01 1Technologies.802.15.4.Devices.Device.[0].Enabled 0 × 4d 0c 0 × 3dTechnologies.802.15.4.Devices.Device.[0].Services 0 × 0b 0 × 3b“802.15.4_18 . . . ”Technologies.802.15.4.Devices.Device.[0].Services.[0] 0 × 4d 0c 0 × cbServices 0 × 4d 17 0 × 75 Services.Service.[0] 0 × 4b 0b 0 × 13“wifi_18b43 . . . ” Services.Service.[0].ID 0 × 4b 0d 0 × 14 “998-3Alp...” Services.Service.[0].Name 0 × 4c 0f 0 × 28 3939382d . . .Services.Service.[0].SSID 0 × 45 10 0 × 02 2462Services.Service.[0].Frequency 0 × 40 11 0 × 01 1Services.Service.[0].AutoConnect 0 × 40 12 0 × 01 1Services.Service.[0].Favorite 0 × 4d 02 0 × 0dServices.Service.[0].Network 0 × 4d 03 0 × 0aServices.Service.[0].Network.IPv4 0 × 4d 14 0 × 07Services.Service.[0].Network.IPv4.DHCP 0 × 45 15 0 × 04 0 × 0a02001eServices.Service.[0].Network.IPv4.LastAddress 0 × 4d 17 0 × 50Services.Service.[1] 0 × 4b 0b 0 × 1a “802.15.4_18 . . . ”Services.Service.[1].ID 0 × 4c 0d 0 × 10 “998-3 Alp . . . ”Services.Service.[1].Name 0 × 4c 0f 0 × 10 3939382d . . .Services.Service.[1].EPANID 0 × 45 10 0 × 02 2412Services.Service.[1].Frequency 0 × 40 11 0 × 01 1Services.Service.[1].AutoConnect 0 × 40 12 0 × 01 1Services.Service.[1].FavoriteThe TLV format enables reference of properties that may also beenumerated with XML, but does so with a smaller storage size. Forexample, Table 7 illustrates a comparison of data sizes of the XMLProperty List, a corresponding binary property list, and the TLV format.

TABLE 7 Comparison of the sizes of property list data sizes. List TypeSize in Bytes Percentage of XML Size XML 2,199 — Binary 730 −66.8% TLV450 −79.5%By reducing the amount of data used to transfer data, the TLV formatenables the fabric 1000 transfer data to and/or from devices havingshort duty cycles due to limited power (e.g., battery supplied devices).In other words, the TLV format allows flexibility of transmission whileincreasing compactness of the data to be transmitted.

C. General Message Protocol

In addition to sending particular entries of varying sizes, data may betransmitted within the fabric using a general message protocol that mayincorporate TLV formatting. An embodiment of a general message protocol(GMP) 1128 is illustrated in FIG. 12. In certain embodiments, thegeneral message protocol (GMP) 1128 may be used to transmit data withinthe fabric. The GMP 1128 may be used to transmit data via connectionlessprotocols (e.g., UDP) and/or connection-oriented protocols (e.g., TCP).Accordingly, the GMP 1128 may flexibly accommodate information that isused in one protocol while ignoring such information when using anotherprotocol. Moreover, the GMP 1226 may enable omission of fields that arenot used in a specific transmission. Data that may be omitted from oneor more GMP 1226 transfers is generally indicated using grey bordersaround the data units. In some embodiments, the multi-byte integerfields may be transmitted in a little-endian order or a big-endianorder.

i. Packet Length

In some embodiments, the GMP 1128 may include a Packet Length field1130. In some embodiments, the Packet Length field 1130 includes 2bytes. A value in the Packet Length field 1130 corresponds to anunsigned integer indicating an overall length of the message in bytes,excluding the Packet Length field 1130 itself. The Packet Length field1130 may be present when the GMP 1128 is transmitted over a TCPconnection, but when the GMP 1128 is transmitted over a UDP connection,the message length may be equal to the payload length of the underlyingUDP packet obviating the Packet Length field 1130.

ii. Message Header

The GMP 1128 may also include a Message Header 1132 regardless ofwhether the GMP 1128 is transmitted using TCP or UDP connections. Insome embodiments, the Message Header 1132 includes two bytes of dataarranged in the format illustrated in FIG. 13. As illustrated in FIG.13, the Message Header 1132 includes a Version field 1156. The Versionfield 1156 corresponds to a version of the GMP 1128 that is used toencode the message. Accordingly, as the GMP 1128 is updated, newversions of the GMP 1128 may be created, but each device in a fabric maybe able to receive a data packet in any version of GMP 1128 known to thedevice. In addition to the Version field 1156, the Message Header 1132may include an S Flag field 1158 and a D Flag 1160. The S Flag 1158 is asingle bit that indicates whether a Source Node Id (discussed below)field is included in the transmitted packet. Similarly, the D Flag 1160is a single bit that indicates whether a Destination Node Id (discussedbelow) field is included in the transmitted packet.

The Message Header 1132 also includes an Encryption Type field 1162. TheEncryption Type field 1162 includes four bits that specify which type ofencryption/integrity checking applied to the message, if any. Forexample, 0x0 may indicate that no encryption or message integritychecking is included, but a decimal 0x1 may indicate that AES-128-CTRencryption with HMAC-SHA-1 message integrity checking is included.

Finally, the Message Header 1132 further includes a Signature Type field1164. The Signature Type field 1164 includes four bits that specifywhich type of digital signature is applied to the message, if any. Forexample, 0x0 may indicate that no digital signature is included in themessage, but 0x1 may indicate that the Elliptical Curve DigitalSignature Algorithm (ECDSA) with Prime256v1 elliptical curve parametersis included in the message.

iii. Message Id

Returning to FIG. 12, the GMP 1128 also includes a Message Id field 1134that may be included in a transmitted message regardless of whether themessage is sent using TCP or UDP. The Message Id field 1134 includesfour bytes that correspond to an unsigned integer value that uniquelyidentifies the message from the perspective of the sending node. In someembodiments, nodes may assign increasing Message Id 1134 values to eachmessage that they send returning to zero after reaching 2³² messages.

iv. Source Node Id

In certain embodiments, the GMP 1128 may also include a Source Node Idfield 1136 that includes eight bytes. As discussed above, the SourceNode Id field 1136 may be present in a message when the single-bit SFlag 1158 in the Message Header 1132 is set to 1. In some embodiments,the Source Node Id field 1136 may contain the Interface ID 1104 of theULA 1098 or the entire ULA 1098. In some embodiments, the bytes of theSource Node Id field 1136 are transmitted in an ascending index-valueorder (e.g., EUI[0] then EUI[1] then EUI[2] then EUI[3], etc.).

v. Destination Node Id

The GMP 1128 may include a Destination Node Id field 1138 that includeseight bytes. The Destination Node Id field 1138 is similar to the SourceNode Id field 1136, but the Destination Node Id field 1138 correspondsto a destination node for the message. The Destination Node Id field1138 may be present in a message when the single-bit D Flag 1160 in theMessage Header 1132 is set to 1. Also similar to the Source Node Idfield 1136, in some embodiments, bytes of the Destination Node Id field1138 may be transmitted in an ascending index-value order (e.g., EUI[0]then EUI[1] then EUI[2] then EUI[3], etc.).

vi. Key Id

In some embodiments, the GMP 1128 may include a Key Id field 1140. Incertain embodiments, the Key Id field 1140 includes two bytes. The KeyId field 1140 includes an unsigned integer value that identifies theencryption/message integrity keys used to encrypt the message. Thepresence of the Key Id field 1140 may be determined by the value ofEncryption Type field 1162 of the Message Header 1132. For example, insome embodiments, when the value for the Encryption Type field 1162 ofthe Message Header 1132 is 0x0, the Key Id field 1140 may be omittedfrom the message.

An embodiment of the Key Id field 1140 is presented in FIG. 14. In theillustrated embodiment, the Key Id field 1140 includes a Key Type field1166 and a Key Number field 1168. In some embodiments, the Key Typefield 1166 includes four bits. The Key Type field 1166 corresponds to anunsigned integer value that identifies a type of encryption/messageintegrity used to encrypt the message. For example, in some embodiments,if the Key Type field 1166 is 0x0, the fabric key is shared by all ormost of the nodes in the fabric. However, if the Key Type field 1166 is0x1, the fabric key is shared by a pair of nodes in the fabric.

The Key Id field 1140 also includes a Key Number field 1168 thatincludes twelve bits that correspond to an unsigned integer value thatidentifies a particular key used to encrypt the message out of a set ofavailable keys, either shared or fabric keys.

vii. Payload Length

In some embodiments, the GMP 1128 may include a Payload Length field1142. The Payload Length field 1142, when present, may include twobytes. The Payload Length field 1142 corresponds to an unsigned integervalue that indicates a size in bytes of the Application Payload field.The Payload Length field 1142 may be present when the message isencrypted using an algorithm that uses message padding, as describedbelow in relation to the Padding field.

viii. Initialization Vector

In some embodiments, the GMP 1128 may also include an InitializationVector (IV) field 1144. The IV field 1144, when present, includes avariable number of bytes of data. The IV field 1144 containscryptographic IV values used to encrypt the message. The IV field 1144may be used when the message is encrypted with an algorithm that uses anIV. The length of the IV field 1144 may be derived by the type ofencryption used to encrypt the message.

ix. Application Payload

The GMP 1128 includes an Application Payload field 1146. The ApplicationPayload field 1146 includes a variable number of bytes. The ApplicationPayload field 1146 includes application data conveyed in the message.The length of the Application Payload field 1146 may be determined fromthe Payload Length field 1142, when present. If the Payload Length field1142 is not present, the length of the Application Payload field 1146may be determined by subtracting the length of all other fields from theoverall length of the message and/or data values included within theApplication Payload 1146 (e.g., TLV).

An embodiment of the Application Payload field 1146 is illustrated inFIG. 15. The Application Payload field 1146 includes an APVersion field1170. In some embodiments, the APVersion field 1170 includes eight bitsthat indicate what version of fabric software is supported by thesending device. The Application Payload field 1146 also includes aMessage Type field 1172. The Message Type field 1172 may include eightbits that correspond to a message operation code that indicates the typeof message being sent within a profile. For example, in a softwareupdate profile, a 0x00 may indicate that the message being sent is animage announce. The Application Payload field 1146 further includes anExchange Id field 1174 that includes sixteen bits that corresponds to anexchange identifier that is unique to the sending node for thetransaction.

In addition, the Application Payload field 1146 includes a Profile Idfield 1176. The Profile Id 1176 indicates a “theme of discussion” usedto indicate what type of communication occurs in the message. TheProfile Id 1176 may correspond to one or more profiles that a device maybe capable of communicating. For example, the Profile Id 1176 mayindicate that the message relates to a core profile, a software updateprofile, a status update profile, a data management profile, a climateand comfort profile, a security profile, a safety profile, and/or othersuitable profile types. Each device on the fabric may include a list ofprofiles which are relevant to the device and in which the device iscapable of “participating in the discussion.” For example, many devicesin a fabric may include the core profile, the software update profile,the status update profile, and the data management profile, but onlysome devices would include the climate and comfort profile. TheAPVersion field 1170, Message Type field 1172, the Exchange Id field,the Profile Id field 1176, and the Profile-Specific Header field 1176,if present, may be referred to in combination as the “ApplicationHeader.”

In some embodiments, an indication of the Profile Id via the Profile Idfield 1176 may provide sufficient information to provide a schema fordata transmitted for the profile. However, in some embodiments,additional information may be used to determine further guidance fordecoding the Application Payload field 1146. In such embodiments, theApplication Payload field 1146 may include a Profile-Specific Headerfield 1178. Some profiles may not use the Profile-Specific Header field1178 thereby enabling the Application Payload field 1146 to omit theProfile-Specific Header field 1178. Upon determination of a schema fromthe Profile Id field 1176 and/or the Profile-Specific Header field 1178,data may be encoded/decoded in the Application Payload sub-field 1180.The Application Payload sub-field 1180 includes the core applicationdata to be transmitted between devices and/or services to be stored,rebroadcast, and/or acted upon by the receiving device/service.

x. Message Integrity Check

Returning to FIG. 12, in some embodiments, the GMP 1128 may also includea Message Integrity Check (MIC) field 1148. The MIC field 1148, whenpresent, includes a variable length of bytes of data containing a MICfor the message. The length and byte order of the field depends upon theintegrity check algorithm in use. For example, if the message is checkedfor message integrity using HMAC-SHA-1, the MIC field 1148 includestwenty bytes in big-endian order. Furthermore, the presence of the MICfield 1148 may be determined by whether the Encryption Type field 1162of the Message Header 1132 includes any value other than 0x0.

xi. Padding

The GMP 1128 may also include a Padding field 1150. The Padding field1150, when present, includes a sequence of bytes representing acryptographic padding added to the message to make the encrypted portionof the message evenly divisible by the encryption block size. Thepresence of the Padding field 1150 may be determined by whether the typeof encryption algorithm (e.g., block ciphers in cipher-block chainingmode) indicated by the Encryption Type field 1162 in the Message Header1132 uses cryptographic padding.

xii. Encryption

The Application Payload field 1146, the MIC field 1148, and the Paddingfield 1150 together form an Encryption block 1152. The Encryption block1152 includes the portions of the message that are encrypted when theEncryption Type field 1162 in the Message Header 1132 is any value otherthan 0x0.

xiii. Message Signature

The GMP 1128 may also include a Message Signature field 1154. TheMessage Signature field 1154, when present, includes a sequence of bytesof variable length that contains a cryptographic signature of themessage. The length and the contents of the Message Signature field maybe determined according to the type of signature algorithm in use andindicated by the Signature Type field 1164 of the Message Header 1132.For example, if ECDSA using the Prime256v1 elliptical curve parametersis the algorithm in use, the Message Signature field 1154 may includetwo thirty-two bit integers encoded in little-endian order.

IV. Profiles and Protocols

As discussed above, one or more schemas of information may be selectedupon desired general discussion type for the message. A profile mayconsist of one or more schemas. For example, one set of schemas ofinformation may be used to encode/decode data in the Application Payloadsub-field 1180 when one profile is indicated in the Profile Id field1176 of the Application Payload 1146. However, a different set ofschemas may be used to encode/decode data in the Application Payloadsub-field 1180 when a different profile is indicated in the Profile Idfield 1176 of the Application Payload 1146.

Additionally, in certain embodiments, each device may include a set ofmethods used to process profiles. For example, a core protocol mayinclude the following profiles: GetProfiles, GetSchema, GetSchemas,GetProperty, GetProperties, SetProperty, SetProperties, RemoveProperty,RemoveProperties, RequestEcho, NotifyPropertyChanged, and/orNotifyPropertiesChanged. The Get Profiles method may return an array ofprofiles supported by a queried node. The GetSchema and GetSchemasmethods may respectively return one or all schemas for a specificprofile. GetProperty and GetProperties may respectively return a valueor all value pairs for a profile schema. SetProperty and SetPropertiesmay respectively set single or multiple values for a profile schema.RemoveProperty and RemoveProperties may respectively attempt to remove asingle or multiple values from a profile schema. RequestEcho may send anarbitrary data payload to a specified node which the node returnsunmodified. NotifyPropertyChange and NotifyPropertiesChanged mayrespectively issue a notification if a single/multiple value pairs havechanged for a profile schema.

To aid in understanding profiles and schemas, a non-exclusive list ofprofiles and schemas are provided below for illustrative purposes.

A. Status Reporting

A status reporting schema is presented as the status reporting frame1182 in FIG. 16. The status reporting schema may be a separate profileor may be included in one or more profiles (e.g., a core profile). Incertain embodiments, the status reporting frame 1182 includes a profilefield 1184, a status code field 1186, a next status field 1188, and mayinclude an additional status info field 1190.

i. Profile Field

In some embodiments, the profile field 1184 includes four bytes of datathat defines the profile under which the information in the presentstatus report is to be interpreted. An embodiment of the profile field1184 is illustrated in FIG. 17 with two sub-fields. In the illustratedembodiment, the profile field 1184 includes a profile Id sub-field 1192that includes sixteen bits that corresponds to a vendor-specificidentifier for the profile under which the value of the status codefield 1186 is defined. The profile field 1184 may also includes a vendorId sub-field 1194 that includes sixteen bits that identifies a vendorproviding the profile identified in the profile Id sub-field 1192.

ii. Status Code

In certain embodiments, the status code field 1186 includes sixteen bitsthat encode the status that is being reported. The values in the statuscode field 1186 are interpreted in relation to values encoded in thevendor Id sub-field 1192 and the profile Id sub-field 1194 provided inthe profile field 1184. Additionally, in some embodiments, the statuscode space may be divided into four groups, as indicated in Table 8below.

TABLE 8 Status Code Range Table Range Name Description 0 × 0000 . . . 0× 0010 success A request was successfully processed. 0 × 0011 . . . 0 ×0020 client error An error has or may have occurred on the client-sideof a client/server exchange. For example, the client has made abadly-formed request. 0 × 0021 . . . 0 × 0030 server error An error hasor may have occurred on the server side of a client/server exchange. Forexample, the server has failed to process a client request to anoperating system error. 0 × 0031 . . . 0 × 0040 continue/redirectAdditional processing will be used, such as redirection, to complete aparticular exchange, but no errors yet.Although Table 8 identifies general status code ranges that may be usedseparately assigned and used for each specific profile Id, in someembodiments, some status codes may be common to each of the profiles.For example, these profiles may be identified using a common profile(e.g., core profile) identifier, such as 0x00000000.

iii. Next Status

In some embodiments, the next status code field 1188 includes eightbits. The next status code field 1188 indicates whether there isfollowing status information after the currently reported status. Iffollowing status information is to be included, the next status codefield 1188 indicates what type of status information is to be included.In some embodiments, the next status code field 1188 may always beincluded, thereby potentially increasing the size of the message.However, by providing an opportunity to chain status informationtogether, the potential for overall reduction of data sent may bereduced. If the next status field 1186 is 0x00, no following statusinformation field 1190 is included. However, non-zero values mayindicate that data may be included and indicate the form in which thedata is included (e.g., in a TLV packet).

iv. Additional Status Info

When the next status code field 1188 is non-zero, the additional statusinfo field 1190 is included in the message. If present, the status itemfield may contain status in a form that may be determined by the valueof the preceding status type field (e.g., TLV format)

B. Software Update

The software update profile or protocol is a set of schemas and aclient/server protocol that enables clients to be made aware of or seekinformation about the presence of software that they may download andinstall. Using the software update protocol, a software image may beprovided to the profile client in a format known to the client. Thesubsequent processing of the software image may be generic,device-specific, or vendor-specific and determined by the softwareupdate protocol and the devices.

i. General Application Headers for the Application Payload

In order to be recognized and handled properly, software update profileframes may be identified within the Application Payload field 1146 ofthe GMP 1128. In some embodiments, all software update profile framesmay use a common Profile Id 1176, such as 0x0000000C. Additionally,software update profile frames may include a Message Type field 1172that indicates additional information and may chosen according to Table9 below and the type of message being sent.

TABLE 9 Software update profile message types Type Message 0 × 00 imageannounce 0 × 01 image query image query 0 × 02 response 0 × 03 downloadnotify 0 × 04 notify response 0 × 05 update notify 0 × 06 . . . 0 × ffreservedAdditionally, as described below, the software update sequence may beinitiated by a server sending the update as an image announce or aclient receiving the update as an image query. In either embodiment, anExchange Id 1174 from the initiating event is used for all messages usedin relation to the software update.

ii. Protocol Sequence

FIG. 18 illustrates an embodiment of a protocol sequence 1196 for asoftware update between a software update client 1198 and a softwareupdate server 1200. In certain embodiments, any device in the fabric maybe the software update client 1198 or the software update server 1200.Certain embodiments of the protocol sequence 1196 may include additionalsteps, such as those illustrated as dashed lines that may be omitted insome software update transmissions.

1. Service Discovery

In some embodiments, the protocol sequence 1196 begins with a softwareupdate profile server announcing a presence of the update. However, inother embodiments, such as the illustrated embodiment, the protocolsequence 1196 begins with a service discovery 1202, as discussed above.

2. Image Announce

In some embodiments, an image announce message 1204 may be multicast orunicast by the software update server 1200. The image announce message1204 informs devices in the fabric that the server 1200 has a softwareupdate to offer. If the update is applicable to the client 1198, uponreceipt of the image announce message 1204, the software update client1198 responds with an image query message 1206. In certain embodiments,the image announce message 1204 may not be included in the protocolsequence 1196. Instead, in such embodiments, the software update client1198 may use a polling schedule to determine when to send the imagequery message 1206.

3. Image Query

In certain embodiments, the image query message 1206 may be unicast fromthe software update client 1198 either in response to an image announcemessage 1204 or according to a polling schedule, as discussed above. Theimage query message 1206 includes information from the client 1198 aboutitself. An embodiment of a frame of the image query message 1206 isillustrated in FIG. 19. As illustrated in FIG. 19, certain embodimentsof the image query message 1206 may include a frame control field 1218,a product specification field 1220, a vendor specific data field 1222, aversion specification field 1224, a locale specification field 1226, anintegrity type supported field 1228, and an update schemes supportedfield 1230.

a. Frame Control

The frame control field 1218 includes 1 byte and indicates variousinformation about the image query message 1204. An example of the framecontrol field 128 is illustrated in FIG. 20. As illustrated, the framecontrol field 1218 may include three sub-fields: vendor specific flag1232, locale specification flag 1234, and a reserved field S3. Thevendor specific flag 1232 indicates whether the vendor specific datafield 1222 is included in the message image query message. For example,when the vendor specific flag 1232 is 0 no vendor specific data field1222 may be present in the image query message, but when the vendorspecific flag 1232 is 1 the vendor specific data field 1222 may bepresent in the image query message. Similarly, a 1 value in the localespecification flag 1234 indicates that a locale specification field 1226is present in the image query message, and a 0 value indicates that thelocale specification field 1226 in not present in the image querymessage.

b. Product Specification

The product specification field 1220 is a six byte field. An embodimentof the product specification field 1220 is illustrated in FIG. 21. Asillustrated, the product specification field 1220 may include threesub-fields: a vendor Id field 1236, a product Id field 1238, and aproduct revision field 1240. The vendor Id field 1236 includes sixteenbits that indicate a vendor for the software update client 1198. Theproduct Id field 1238 includes sixteen bits that indicate the deviceproduct that is sending the image query message 1206 as the softwareupdate client 1198. The product revision field 1240 includes sixteenbits that indicate a revision attribute of the software update client1198.

c. Vendor Specific Data

The vendor specific data field 1222, when present in the image querymessage 1206, has a length of a variable number of bytes. The presenceof the vendor specific data field 1222 may be determined from the vendorspecific flag 1232 of the frame control field 1218. When present, thevendor specific data field 1222 encodes vendor specific informationabout the software update client 1198 in a TLV format, as describedabove.

d. Version Specification

An embodiment of the version specification field 1224 is illustrated inFIG. 22. The version specification field 1224 includes a variable numberof bytes sub-divided into two sub-fields: a version length field 1242and a version string field 1244. The version length field 1242 includeseight bits that indicate a length of the version string field 1244. Theversion string field 1244 is variable in length and determined by theversion length field 1242. In some embodiments, the version string field1244 may be capped at 255 UTF-8 characters in length. The value encodedin the version string field 1244 indicates a software version attributefor the software update client 1198.

e. Locale Specification

In certain embodiments, the locale specification field 1226 may beincluded in the image query message 1206 when the locale specificationflag 1234 of the frame control 1218 is 1. An embodiment of the localespecification field 1226 is illustrated in FIG. 23. The illustratedembodiment of the locale specification field 1226 includes a variablenumber of bytes divided into two sub-fields: a locale string lengthfield 1246 and a locale string field 1248. The locale string lengthfield 1246 includes eight bits that indicate a length of the localestring field 1248. The locale string field 1248 of the localespecification field 1226 may be variable in length and contain a stringof UTF-8 characters encoding a local description based on PortableOperating System Interface (POSIX) locale codes. The standard format forPOSIX locale codes is [language[_territory][.codeset][@modifier]] Forexample, the POSIX representation for Australian English is en_AU.UTF8.

f. Integrity Types Supported

An embodiment of the integrity types field 1228 is illustrated in FIG.24. The integrity types supported field 1228 includes two to four bytesof data divided into two sub-fields: a type list length field 1250 andan integrity type list field 1252. The type list length field 1250includes eight bits that indicate the length in bytes of the integritytype list field 1252. The integrity type list field 1252 indicates thevalue of the software update integrity type attribute of the softwareupdate client 1198. In some embodiments, the integrity type may bederived from Table 10 below.

TABLE 10 Example integrity types Value Integrity Type 0 × 00 SHA-160 0 ×01 SHA-256 0 × 02 SHA-512The integrity type list field 1252 may contain at least one element fromTable 10 or other additional values not included.

g. Update Schemes Supported

An embodiment of the schemes supported field 1230 is illustrated in FIG.25. The schemes supported field 1230 includes a variable number of bytesdivided into two sub-fields: a scheme list length field 1254 and anupdate scheme list field 1256. The scheme list length field 1254includes eight bits that indicate a length of the update scheme listfield in bytes. The update scheme list field 1256 of the update schemessupported field 1222 is variable in length determined by the scheme listlength field 1254. The update scheme list field 1256 represents anupdate schemes attributes of the software update profile of the softwareupdate client 1198. An embodiment of example values is shown in Table 11below.

TABLE 11 Example update schemes Value Update Scheme 0x00 HTTP 0x01 HTTPS0x02 SFTP 0x03 Fabric-specific File Transfer Protocol (e.g., Bulk DataTransfer discussed below)Upon receiving the image query message 1206, the software update server1200 uses the transmitted information to determine whether the softwareupdate server 1200 has an update for the software update client 1198 andhow best to deliver the update to the software update client 1198.

4. Image Query Response

Returning to FIG. 18, after the software update server 1200 receives theimage query message 1206 from the software update client 1198, thesoftware update server 1200 responds with an image query response 1208.The image query response 1208 includes either information detailing whyan update image is not available to the software update client 1198 orinformation about the available image update to enable to softwareupdate client 1198 to download and install the update.

An embodiment of a frame of the image query response 1208 is illustratedin FIG. 26. As illustrated, the image query response 1208 includes fivepossible sub-fields: a query status field 1258, a uniform resourceidentifier (URI) field 1260, an integrity specification field 1262, anupdate scheme field 1264, and an update options field 1266.

a. Query Status

The query status field 1258 includes a variable number of bytes andcontains status reporting formatted data, as discussed above inreference to status reporting. For example, the query status field 1258may include image query response status codes, such as those illustratedbelow in Table 12.

TABLE 12 Example image query response status codes Profile CodeDescription 0x00000000 0x0000 The server has processed the image querymessage 1206 and has an update for the software update client 1198.0x0000000C 0x0001 The server has processed the image query message 1206,but the server does not have an update for the software update client1198. 0x00000000 0x0010 The server could not process the request becauseof improper form for the request. 0x00000000 0x0020 The server could notprocess the request due to an internal error

b. URI

The URI field 1260 includes a variable number of bytes. The presence ofthe URI field 1260 may be determined by the query status field 1258. Ifthe query status field 1258 indicates that an update is available, theURI field 1260 may be included. An embodiment of the URI field 1260 isillustrated in FIG. 27. The URI field 1260 includes two sub-fields: aURI length field 1268 and a URI string field 1270. The URI length field1268 includes sixteen bits that indicates the length of the URI stringfield 1270 in UTF-8 characters. The URI string field 1270 and indicatesthe URI attribute of the software image update being presented, suchthat the software update client 1198 may be able to locate, download,and install a software image update, when present.

c. Integrity Specification

The integrity specification field 1262 may variable in length andpresent when the query status field 1258 indicates that an update isavailable from the software update server 1198 to the software updateclient 1198. An embodiment of the integrity specification field 1262 isillustrated in FIG. 28. As illustrated, the integrity specificationfield 1262 includes two sub-fields: an integrity type field 1272 and anintegrity value field 1274. The integrity type field 1272 includes eightbits that indicates an integrity type attribute for the software imageupdate and may be populated using a list similar to that illustrated inTable 10 above. The integrity value field 1274 includes the integrityvalue that is used to verify that the image update message hasmaintained integrity during the transmission.

d. Update Scheme

The update scheme field 1264 includes eight bits and is present when thequery status field 1258 indicates that an update is available from thesoftware update server 1198 to the software update client 1198. Ifpresent, the update scheme field 1264 indicates a scheme attribute forthe software update image being presented to the software update server1198.

e. Update Options

The update options field 1266 includes eight bits and is present whenthe query status field 1258 indicates that an update is available fromthe software update server 1198 to the software update client 1198. Theupdate options field 1266 may be sub-divided as illustrated in FIG. 29.As illustrated, the update options field 1266 includes four sub-fields:an update priority field 1276, an update condition field 1278, a reportstatus flag 1280, and a reserved field 1282. In some embodiments, theupdate priority field 1276 includes two bits. The update priority field1276 indicates a priority attribute of the update and may be determinedusing values such as those illustrated in Table 13 below.

TABLE 13 Example update priority values Value Description 00Normal—update during a period of low network traffic 01 Critical—updateas quickly as possible

The update condition field 1278 includes three bits that may be used todetermine conditional factors to determine when or if to update. Forexample, values in the update condition field 1278 may be decoded usingthe Table 14 below.

TABLE 14 Example update conditions Value Decryption 0 Update withoutconditions 1 Update if the version of the software running on the updateclient software does not match the update version. 2 Update if theversion of the software running on the update client software is olderthan the update version. 3 Update if the user opts into an update with auser interfaceThe report status flag 1280 is a single bit that indicates whether thesoftware update client 1198 should respond with a download notifymessage 1210. If the report status flag 1280 is set to 1 the softwareupdate server 1198 is requesting a download notify message 1210 to besent after the software update is downloaded by the software updateclient 1200.

If the image query response 1208 indicates that an update is available.The software update client 1198 downloads 1210 the update using theinformation included in the image query response 1208 at a timeindicated in the image query response 1208.

5. Download Notify

After the update download 1210 is successfully completed or failed andthe report status flag 1280 value is 1, the software update client 1198may respond with the download notify message 1212. The download notifymessage 1210 may be formatted in accordance with the status reportingformat discussed above. An example of status codes used in the downloadnotify message 1212 is illustrated in Table 15 below.

TABLE 15 Example download notify status codes Profile Code Description0x00000000 0x0000 The download has been completed, and integrityverified 0x0000000C 0x0020 The download could not be completed due tofaulty download instructions. 0x0000000C 0x0021 The image query responsemessage 1208 appears proper, but the download or integrity verificationfailed. 0x0000000C 0x0022 The integrity of the download could not beverified.In addition to the status reporting described above, the download notifymessage 1208 may include additional status information that may berelevant to the download and/or failure to download.

6. Notify Response

The software update server 1200 may respond with a notify responsemessage 1214 in response to the download notify message 1212 or anupdate notify message 1216. The notify response message 1214 may includethe status reporting format, as described above. For example, the notifyresponse message 1214 may include status codes as enumerated in Table 16below.

TABLE 16 Example notify response status codes Profile Code Description0x00000000 0x0030 Continue—the notification is acknowledged, but theupdate has not completed, such as download notify message 1214 receivedbut update notify message 1216 has not. 0x00000000 0x0000 Success—thenotification is acknowledged, and the update has completed. 0x0000000C0x0023 Abort—the notification is acknowledged, but the server cannotcontinue the update. 0x0000000C 0x0031 Retry query—the notification isacknowledged, and the software update client 1198 is directed to retrythe update by submitting another image query message 1206.In addition to the status reporting described above, the notify responsemessage 1214 may include additional status information that may berelevant to the download, update, and/or failure to download/update thesoftware update.

7. Update Notify

After the update is successfully completed or failed and the reportstatus flag 1280 value is 1, the software update client 1198 may respondwith the update notify message 1216. The update notify message 1216 mayuse the status reporting format described above. For example, the updatenotify message 1216 may include status codes as enumerated in Table 17below.

TABLE 17 Example update notify status codes Profile Code Description0x00000000 0x0000 Success—the update has been completed. 0x0000000C0x0010 Client error—the update failed due to a problem in the softwareupdate client 1198.In addition to the status reporting described above, the update notifymessage 1216 may include additional status information that may berelevant to the update and/or failure to update.

C. Data Management Protocol

Data management may be included in a common profile (e.g., core profile)used in various electronic devices within the fabric or may bedesignated as a separate profile. In either situation, the devicemanagement protocol (DMP) may be used for nodes to browse, share, and/orupdate node-resident information. A sequence 1284 used in the DMP isillustrated in FIG. 30. The sequence 1284 illustrates a viewing node1286 that requests to view and/or change resident data of a viewed node1288. Additionally, the viewing node 1286 may request to view theresident data using one of several viewing options, such as a snapshotrequest, a watching request that the viewing persists over a period oftime, or other suitable viewing type. Each message follows the formatfor the Application Payload 1146 described in reference to FIG. 15. Forexample, each message contains a profile Id 1176 that corresponds to thedata management profile and/or the relevant core profile, such as0x235A0000. Each message also contains a message type 1172. The messagetype 1172 may be used to determine various factors relating theconversation, such as viewing type for the view. For example, in someembodiments, the message type field 1172 may be encoded/decodedaccording to Table 18 below.

TABLE 18 Example software update profile message types Type Message 0x00snapshot request 0x01 watch request 0x02 periodic update request 0x03refresh update 0x04 cancel view update 0x05 view response 0x06 explicitupdate request 0x07 view update request 0x08 update response

i. View Request

Although a view request message 1290 requests to view node-residentdata, the type of request may be determined by the message type field1172, as discussed above. Accordingly each request type may include adifferent view request frame.

1. Snapshot Request

A snapshot request may be sent by the viewing node 1286 when the viewingnode 1286 desires an instantaneous view into the node-resident data onthe viewed node 1288 without requesting future updates. An embodiment ofa snapshot request frame 1292 is illustrated in FIG. 31.

As illustrated in FIG. 31, the snapshot request frame 1292 may bevariable in length and include three fields: a view handle field 1294, apath length list field 1296, and a path list field 1298. The view handlefield 1294 may include two bits that provide a “handle” to identify therequested view. In some embodiments, the view handle field 1294 ispopulated using a random 16-bit number or a 16-bit sequence number alongwith a uniqueness check performed on the viewing node 1286 when therequest is formed. The path list length field 1296 includes two bytesthat indicate a length of the path list field 1298. The path list field1298 is variable in length and indicated by the value of the path listlength field 1296. The value of the path list field 1298 indicates aschema path for nodes.

A schema path is a compact description for a data item or container thatis part of a schema resident on the nodes. For example, FIG. 32 providesan example of a profile schema 1300. In the illustrated profile schema1300, a path to data item 1302 may be written as “Foo:bicycle:mountain”in a binary format. The binary format of the path may be represented asa profile binary format 1304, as depicted in FIG. 33. The profile binaryformat 1304 includes two sub-fields: a profile identifier field 1306 anda TLV data field 1308. The profile identifier field 1306 identifieswhich profile is being referenced (e.g., Foo profile). The TLV datafield 1308 path information. As previously discussed TLV data includes atag field that includes information about the enclosed data. Tag fieldvalues used to refer to the Foo profile of FIG. 32 may be similar tothose values listed in Table 19.

TABLE 19 Example tag values for the Foo profile Name Tag animal 0x4301fish 0x4302 fowl 0x4303 medium 0x4304 size 0x4305 bicycle 0x4306 road0x4307 mountain 0x4308 track 0x4309 # of gears 0x430A weight 0x430BUsing Table 19 and the Foo profile of FIG. 32, a binary string in TLVformat representing the path “Foo:bicycle:mountain” may be representedas shown in Table 20 below.

TABLE 20 Example binary tag list for a schema path Profile ID Tag andLength (TL) “bicycle” “mountain” CD:AB:00:00 0D:02 06:43 08:43If the viewing node 1286 desires to receive an entire data set definedin a profile schema (e.g. Foo profile schema of FIG. 33), the viewrequest message 1290 may request a “nil” item (e.g., 0x0D00 TL and anempty length referring to the container.

2. Watch Request

If the viewing node 1286 desires more than a snapshot, the viewing node1286 may request a watch request. A watch request asks the viewed node1288 to send updates when changes are made to the data of interest inviewed node 1288 so that viewing node 1286 can keep a synchronized listof the data. The watch request frame may have a different format thanthe snapshot request of FIG. 31. An embodiment of a watch request frame1310 is illustrated in FIG. 34. The watch request frame 1310 includesfour fields: a view handle field 1312, a path list length field 1314, apath list field 1316, and a change count field 1318. The view handlefield 1312, the path list length field 1314, and the path list field maybe respectively formatted similar to the view handle field 1294, thepath list length field 1296, and the path list field 1298 of thesnapshot request of FIG. 31. The additional field, the change countfield 1318, indicates a threshold of a number of changes to therequested data at which an update is sent to the viewing node 1286. Insome embodiments, if the value of the change count field 1318 is 0, theviewed node 1288 may determine when to send an update on its own. If thevalue of the change count field 1318 is nonzero then after a number ofchanges equal to the value, then an update is sent to the viewing node1286.

3. Periodic Update Request

A third type of view may also be requested by the viewing node 1286.This third type of view is referred to as a periodic update. A periodicupdate includes a snapshot view as well as periodic updates. As can beunderstood, a periodic update request may be similar to the snapshotrequest with additional information determining the update period. Forexample, an embodiment of a periodic update request frame 1320 isdepicted in FIG. 35. The periodic update request frame 1320 includesfour fields: a view handle field 1322, a path list length field 1324, apath list field 1326, and an update period field 1328. The view handlefield 1322, the path list length field 1324, and the path list field1326 may be formatted similar to their respective fields in the snapshotrequest frame 1292. The update period field 1328 is four bytes in lengthand contains a value that corresponds to a period of time to lapsebetween updates in a relevant unit of time (e.g., seconds).

4. Refresh Request

When the viewing node 1286 desires to receive an updated snapshot, theviewing node 1286 may send a view request message 1290 in the form of arefresh request frame 1330 as illustrated in FIG. 36. The refreshrequest frame 1330 essentially resends a snapshot view handle field(e.g., view handle field 1294) from a previous snapshot request that theviewed node 1288 can recognize as a previous request using the viewhandle value in the refresh request frame 1330.

5. Cancel View Request

When the viewing node 1286 desires to cancel an ongoing view (e.g.,periodic update or watch view), the viewing node 1286 may send a viewrequest message 1290 in the form of a cancel view request frame 1332 asillustrated in FIG. 37. The cancel view request frame 1332 essentiallyresends a view handle field from a previous periodic update or watchview (e.g., view handle fields 1310, or 1322) from a previous requestthat the viewed node 1288 can recognize as a previous request using theview handle value in the refresh request frame 1330 and to cancel acurrently periodic update or watch view.

ii. View Response

Returning to FIG. 30, after the viewed node 1288 receives a view requestmessage 1290, the viewed node 1288 responds with a view response message1334. An example of a view response message frame 1336 is illustrated inFIG. 38. The view response message frame 1336 includes three fields: aview handle field 1338, a view request status field 1240, and a dataitem list 1242. The view handle field 1338 may be formatted similar toany of the above referenced view handle fields 1338. Additionally, theview handle field 1338 contains a value that matches a respective viewhandle field from the view request message 1290 to which the viewresponse message 1334 is responding. The view request status field 1340is a variable length field that indicates a status of the view requestand may be formatted according to the status updating format discussedabove. The data item list field 1342 is a variable length field that ispresent when the view request status field 1340 indicates that the viewrequest was successful. When present, the data item list field 1342contains an ordered list of requested data corresponding to the pathlist of the view request message 1290. Moreover, the data in the dataitem list field 1342 may be encoded in a TLV format, as discussed above.

iii. Update Request

As discussed above, in some embodiments, the viewed node 1288 may sendupdates to the viewing node 1286. These updates may be sent as an updaterequest message 1344. The update request message 1344 may include aspecified format dependent upon a type of update request. For example,an update request may be an explicit update request or a view updaterequest field that may be identified by the Message Id 1172.

1. Explicit Update Request

An explicit update request may be transmitted at any time as a result ofa desire for information from another node in the fabric 1000. Anexplicit update request may be formatted in an update request frame 1346illustrated in FIG. 39. The illustrated update request frame 1346includes four fields: an update handle field 1348, a path list lengthfield 1350, a path list field 1352, and a data item list field 1354.

The update handle field 1348 includes two bytes that may be populatedwith random or sequential numbers with uniqueness checks to identify anupdate request or responses to the request. The path list length field1350 includes two bytes that indicate a length of the path list field1352. The path list field 1352 is a variable length field that indicatesa sequence of paths, as described above. The data item list field 1354may be formatted similar to the data item list field 1242.

2. View Update Request

A view update request message may be transmitted by a node that haspreviously requested a view into a schema of another node or a node thathas established a view into its own data on behalf of another node. Anembodiment of a view update request frame 1356 illustrated in FIG. 40.The view update request frame 1356 includes four fields: an updatehandle field 1358, a view handle field 1360, an update item list lengthfield 1362, and an update item list field 1364. The update handle field1358 may be composed using the format discussed above in reference tothe update handle field 1348. The view handle field 1360 includes twobytes that identify the view created by a relevant view request message1290 having the same view handle. The update item list length field 1362includes two bytes and indicates the number of update items that areincluded in the update item list field 1364.

The update item list field 1364 includes a variable number of bytes andlists the data items constituting the updated values. Each updated itemlist may include multiple update items. The individual update items areformatted accordingly to the update item frame 1366 illustrated in FIG.41. Each update item frame 1366 includes three sub-fields: an item indexfield 1368, an item timestamp field 1370, and a data item field 1372.The item index field 1368 includes two bytes that indicate the viewunder which the update is being requested and the index in the path listof that view for the data item field 1372.

The item timestamp field 1370 includes four bytes and indicates theelapsed time (e.g., in seconds) from the change until the update beingcommunicated was made. If more than one change has been made to the dataitem, the item timestamp field 1370 may indicate the most recent or theearliest change. The data item field 1372 is a variable length fieldencoded in TLV format that is to be received as the updated information.

iv. Update Response

After an update is received, a node (e.g., viewing node 1286) may sendan update response message 1374. The update response message 1374 may beencoded using an update response frame 1376 illustrated in FIG. 42. Theupdate response frame 1376 includes two fields: an update handle field1378 and an update request status field 1380. The update handle field1378 corresponds to an update handle field value of the update requestmessage 1344 to which the update response message 1374 is responding.The update request status field 1380 reports a status of the update inaccordance with the status reporting format discussed above.Additionally, a profile using the DMP (e.g., a core profile or a datamanagement profile) may include profile-specific codes, such as thoseenumerated in Table 21 below.

TABLE 21 Example of status codes for a profile including the DMP NameValue Description success 0x0000 Request successfully processedill-formed request 0x0010 Received request was unparseable (e.g.,missing fields, extra fields, etc.) invalid path 0x0011 A path from thepath list of the view or update request did not match a node- residentschema of the responding device. unknown view handle 0x0012 The viewhandle in the update request did not match a view on the receiving node.illegal read request 0x0013 The node making a request to read aparticular data item does not have permission to do so. illegal writerequest 0x0014 The node making the request to write a particular dataitem does not have permission to do so. internal server error 0x0020 Theserver could not process the request because of an internal error. outof memory 0x0021 The update request could not executed because it wouldoverrun the available memory in the receiving device. continue 0x0030The request was successfully handled but more action by the requestingdevice may occur.

D. Bulk Transfer

In some embodiments, it may be desirable to transfer bulk data files(e.g., sensor data, logs, or update images) between nodes/services inthe fabric 1000. To enable transfer of bulk data, a separate profile orprotocol may be incorporated into one or more profiles and madeavailable to the nodes/services in the nodes. The bulk data transferprotocol may model data files as collections of data with metadataattachments. In certain embodiments, the data may be opaque, but themetadata may be used to determine whether to proceed with a requestedfile transfer.

Devices participating in a bulk transfer may be generally dividedaccording to the bulk transfer communication and event creation. Asillustrated in FIG. 43, each communication 1400 in a bulk transferincludes a sender 1402 that is a node/service that sends the bulk data1404 to a receiver 1406 that is a node/service that receives the bulkdata 1404. In some embodiments, the receiver may send status information1408 to the sender 1402 indicating a status of the bulk transfer.Additionally, a bulk transfer event may be initiated by either thesender 1402 (e.g., upload) or the receiver 1406 (e.g., download) as theinitiator. A node/service that responds to the initiator may be referredto as the responder in the bulk data transfer.

Bulk data transfer may occur using either synchronous or asynchronousmodes. The mode in which the data is transferred may be determined usinga variety of factors, such as the underlying protocol (e.g., UDP or TCP)on which the bulk data is sent. In connectionless protocols (e.g., UDP),bulk data may be transferred using a synchronous mode that allows one ofthe nodes/services (“the driver”) to control a rate at which thetransfer proceeds. In certain embodiments, after each message in asynchronous mode bulk data transfer, an acknowledgment may be sentbefore sending the next message in the bulk data transfer. The drivermay be the sender 1402 or the receiver 1406. In some embodiments, thedriver may toggle between an online state and an offline mode whilesending messages to advance the transfer when in the online state. Inbulk data transfers using connection-oriented protocols (e.g., TCP),bulk data may be transferred using an asynchronous mode that does notuse an acknowledgment before sending successive messages or a singledriver.

Regardless of whether the bulk data transfer is performed using asynchronous or asynchronous mode, a type of message may be determinedusing a Message Type 1172 in the Application Payload 1146 according theProfile Id 1176 in the Application Payload. Table 22 includes an exampleof message types that may be used in relation to a bulk data transferprofile value in the Profile Id 1176.

TABLE 22 Examples of message types for bulk data transfer profilesMessage Type Message 0x01 SendInit 0x02 SendAccept 0x03 SendReject 0x04ReceiveInit 0x05 ReceiveAccept 0x06 ReceiveReject 0x07 BlockQuery 0x08Block 0x09 BlockEOF 0x0A Ack 0x0B Block EOF 0x0C Error

i. SendInit

An embodiment of a SendInit message 1420 is illustrated in FIG. 44. TheSendInit message 1420 may include seven fields: a transfer control field1422, a range control field 1424, a file designator length field 1426, aproposed max block size field 1428, a start offset field 1430, lengthfield 1432, and a file designator field 1434.

The transfer control field 1422 includes a byte of data illustrated inFIG. 45. The transfer control field includes at least four fields: anAsynch flag 1450, an RDrive flag 1452, an SDrive flag 1454, and aversion field 1456. The Asynch flag 1450 indicates whether the proposedtransfer may be performed using a synchronous or an asynchronous mode.The RDrive flag 1452 and the SDrive flag 1454 each respectivelyindicates whether the receiver 1406 is capable of transferring data withthe receiver 1402 or the sender 1408 driving a synchronous modetransfer.

The range control field 1424 includes a byte of data such as the rangecontrol field 1424 illustrated in FIG. 46. In the illustratedembodiment, the range control field 1424 includes at least three fields:a BigExtent flag 1470, a start offset flag 1472, and a definite lengthflag 1474. The definite length flag 1474 indicates whether the transferhas a definite length. The definite length flag 1474 indicates whetherthe length field 1432 is present in the SendInit message 1420, and theBigExtent flag 1470 indicates a size for the length field 1432. Forexample, in some embodiments, a value of 1 in the BigExtent flag 1470indicates that the length field 1432 is eight bytes. Otherwise, thelength field 1432 is four bytes, when present. If the transfer has adefinite length, the start offset flag 1472 indicates whether a startoffset is present. If a start offset is present, the BigExtent flag 1470indicates a length for the start offset field 1430. For example, in someembodiments, a value of 1 in the BigExtent flag 1470 indicates that thestart offset field 1430 is eight bytes. Otherwise, the start offsetfield 1430 is four bytes, when present.

Returning to FIG. 44, the file designator length field 1426 includes twobytes that indicate a length of the file designator field 1434. The filedesignator field 1434 which is a variable length field dependent uponthe file designator length field 1426. The max block size field 1428proposes a maximum size of block that may be transferred in a singletransfer.

The start offset field 1430, when present, has a length indicated by theBigExtent flag 1470. The value of the start offset field 1430 indicatesa location within the file to be transferred from which the sender 1402may start the transfer, essentially allowing large file transfers to besegmented into multiple bulk transfer sessions.

The length field 1432, when present, indicates a length of the file tobe transferred if the definite length field 1474 indicates that the filehas a definite length. In some embodiments, if the receiver 1402receives a final block before the length is achieved, the receiver mayconsider the transfer failed and report an error as discussed below.

The file designator field 1434 is a variable length identifier chosen bythe sender 1402 to identify the file to be sent. In some embodiments,the sender 1402 and the receiver 1406 may negotiate the identifier forthe file prior to transmittal. In other embodiments, the receiver 1406may use metadata along with the file designator field 1434 to determinewhether to accept the transfer and how to handle the data. The length ofthe file designator field 1434 may be determined from the filedesignator length field 1426. In some embodiments, the SendInit message1420 may also include a metadata field 1480 of a variable length encodedin a TLV format. The metadata field 1480 enables the initiator to sendadditional information, such as application-specific information aboutthe file to be transferred. In some embodiments, the metadata field 1480may be used to avoid negotiating the file designator field 1434 prior tothe bulk data transfer.

ii. SendAccept

A send accept message is transmitted from the responder to indicate thetransfer mode chosen for the transfer. An embodiment of a SendAcceptmessage 1500 is presented in FIG. 47. The SendAccept message 1500includes a transfer control field 1502 similar to the transfer controlfield 1422 of the SendInit message 1420. However, in some embodiments,only the RDrive flag 1452 or the SDrive 1454 may have a nonzero value inthe transfer control field 1502 to identify the sender 1402 or thereceiver 1406 as the driver of a synchronous mode transfer. TheSendAccept message 1500 also includes a max block size field 1504 thatindicates a maximum block size for the transfer. The block size field1504 may be equal to the value of the max block field 1428 of theSendInit message 1420, but the value of the max block size field 1504may be smaller than the value proposed in the max block field 1428.Finally, the SendAccept message 1500 may include a metadata field 1506that indicates information that the receiver 1506 may pass to the sender1402 about the transfer.

iii. SendReject

When the receiver 1206 rejects a transfer after a SendInit message, thereceiver 1206 may send a SendReject message that indicates that one ormore issues exist regarding the bulk data transfer between the sender1202 and the receiver 1206. The send reject message may be formattedaccording to the status reporting format described above and illustratedin FIG. 48. A send reject frame 1520 may include a status code field1522 that includes two bytes that indicate a reason for rejecting thetransfer. The status code field 1522 may be decoded using values similarto those enumerated as indicated in the Table 23 below.

TABLE 23 Example status codes for send reject message Status CodeDescription 0x0020 Transfer method not supported 0x0021 File designatorunknown 0x0022 Start offset not supported 0x0011 Length required 0x0012Length too large 0x002F Unknown errorIn some embodiments, the send reject message 1520 may include a nextstatus field 1524. The next status field 1524, when present, may beformatted and encoded as discussed above in regard to the next statusfield 1188 of a status report frame. In certain embodiments, the sendreject message 1520 may include an additional information field 1526.The additional information field 1526, when present, may storeinformation about an additional status and may be encoded using the TLVformat discussed above.

iv. ReceiveInit

A ReceiveInit message may be transmitted by the receiver 1206 as theinitiator. The ReceiveInit message may be formatted and encoded similarto the SendInit message 1480 illustrated in FIG. 44, but the BigExtentfield 1470 may be referred to as a maximum length field that specifiesthe maximum file size that the receiver 1206 can handle.

v. ReceiveAccept

When the sender 1202 receives a ReceiveInit message, the sender 1202 mayrespond with a ReceiveAccept message. The ReceiveAccept message may beformatted and encoded as the ReceiveAccept message 1540 illustrated inFIG. 49. The ReceiveAccept message 1540 may include four fields: atransfer control field 1542, a range control field 1544, a max blocksize field 1546, and sometimes a length field 1548. The ReceiveAcceptmessage 1540 may be formatted similar to the SendAccept message 1502 ofFIG. 47 with the second byte indicating the range control field 1544.Furthermore, the range control field 1544 may be formatted and encodedusing the same methods discussed above regarding the range control field1424 of FIG. 46.

vi. ReceiveReject

If the sender 1202 encounters an issue with transferring the file to thereceiver 1206, the sender 1202 may send a ReceiveReject messageformatted and encoded similar to a SendReject message 48 using thestatus reporting format, both discussed above. However, the status codefield 1522 may be encoded/decoded using values similar to thoseenumerated as indicated in the Table 24 below.

TABLE 24 Example status codes for receive reject message Status CodeDescription 0x0020 Transfer method not supported 0x0021 File designatorunknown 0x0022 Start offset not supported 0x0013 Length too short 0x002FUnknown error

vii. BlockQuery

A BlockQuery message may be sent by a driving receiver 1202 in asynchronous mode bulk data transfer to request the next block of data. ABlockQuery impliedly acknowledges receipt of a previous block of data ifnot explicit Acknowledgement has been sent. In embodiments usingasynchronous transfers, a BlockQuery message may be omitted from thetransmission process.

viii. Block

Blocks of data transmitted in a bulk data transfer may include anylength greater than 0 and less than a max block size agreed upon by thesender 1202 and the receiver 1206.

ix. BlockEOF

A final block in a data transfer may be presented as a Block end of file(BlockEOF). The BlockEOF may have a length between 0 and the max blocksize. If the receiver 1206 finds a discrepancy between a pre-negotiatedfile size (e.g., length field 1432) and the amount of data actuallytransferred, the receiver 1206 may send an Error message indicating thefailure, as discussed below.

x. Ack

If the sender 1202 is driving a synchronous mode transfer, the sender1202 may wait until receiving an acknowledgment (Ack) after sending aBlock before sending the next Block. If the receiver is driving asynchronous mode transfer, the receiver 1206 may send either an explicitAck or a BlockQuery to acknowledge receipt of the previous block.Furthermore, in asynchronous mode bulk transfers, the Ack message may beomitted from the transmission process altogether.

xi. AckEOF

An acknowledgement of an end of file (AckEOF) may be sent in bulktransfers sent in synchronous mode or asynchronous mode. Using theAckEOF the receiver 1206 indicates that all data in the transfer hasbeen received and signals the end of the bulk data transfer session.

xii. Error

In the occurrence of certain issues in the communication, the sender1202 or the receiver 1206 may send an error message to prematurely endthe bulk data transfer session. Error messages may be formatted andencoded according to the status reporting format discussed above. Forexample, an error message may be formatted similar to the SendRejectframe 1520 of FIG. 48. However, the status codes may be encoded/decodedwith values including and/or similar to those enumerated in Table 25below.

TABLE 25 Example status codes for an error message in a bulk datatransfer profile Status code Description 0x001F Transfer failed unknownerror 0x0011 Overflow error

The specific embodiments described above have been shown by way ofexample, and it should be understood that these embodiments may besusceptible to various modifications and alternative forms. It should befurther understood that the claims are not intended to be limited to theparticular forms disclosed, but rather to cover all modifications,equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope ofthis disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium havingstored thereon a message format, wherein the message format comprises: amessage header field configured to indicate: a version of the messageformat used to format the message; whether addressing information isincluded in the message; and whether security information is included inthe message; a message ID field configured to identify a message with anidentifier that is unique for a device in a fabric network that encodesor sends the message, wherein the message ID field follows the messageheader field; and an application payload field following the message IDfield and comprising data transmitted from the device within the fabricnetwork.
 2. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 1,wherein the message header field comprises two bytes of data.
 3. Thenon-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the messageID field comprises four bits of data.
 4. The non-transitory,computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the application payloadfield comprises a variable length of data.
 5. The non-transitory,computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the application payloadfield comprises data formatted in a tag-length-value format.
 6. Thenon-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein theaddressing information comprises a source ID flag that indicates whethera source address for the device is included in the message, wherein thesource address indicates the device formatted in a Unique Local Addressformat comprising: a global ID having 40 bits of data configured toidentify the fabric network in which the sending device is connected; asubnet ID having 16 bits of data configured to identify a logicalnetwork in the fabric network in which the sending device is connected;and an interface ID having 64 bits of data configured to identify thesending device.
 7. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim1, wherein the addressing information comprises a destination ID flagthat indicated whether a destination address is included in the message,wherein the destination address indicates a destination device that isconnected to the fabric network, wherein the destination address isformatted in a Unique Local Address format comprising: a global IDhaving 40 bits of data configured to identify the fabric network inwhich the destination device is connected; a subnet ID having 16 bits ofdata configured to identify a logical network in the fabric network inwhich the destination device is connected; and an interface ID having 64bits of data configured to identify the sending device.
 8. An electronicdevice configured to send or receive messages to other electronicdevices over a platform layer, wherein the messages comprise: a messageformat comprising: a version field configured to indicate a version ofthe message format being used to format the message; a message typefield immediately following the version field, wherein the message typefield is configured to indicate a message operation code that specifiesa type of message being sent; an exchange ID field immediately followingthe version field, wherein the exchange ID field is configured touniquely identify a discussion in which the message occurs for theelectronic device; a profile ID field immediately following the exchangeID field, wherein the profile ID field indicates a profile of aplurality of profiles that enables a receiving device to interpret themessage type field and identify at least one schema of a plurality ofschemas for transmitted data, wherein each schema of the plurality ofschemas indicates an encoding format according to the profile andschema; and an application payload field following the profile id,wherein the application payload field comprises data associated with anapplication layer of the electronic device.
 9. The electronic device ofclaim 8, comprising a profile-specific header field that immediatelyfollows the profile ID field and immediately precedes the applicationpayload field, wherein the profile-specific header is included in themessage format when the profile field indicates that a profile isincluded that uses additional information to process the applicationpayload.
 10. The electronic device of claim 8, wherein each profile ofthe plurality of profiles comprises a set of schema of the plurality ofschemas.
 11. The electronic device of claim 9, wherein the indicatedprofile comprises: a core profile comprising a set of basic schemasavailable to the electronic device; a data management profile comprisinga set of data management schemas that enables the electronic device toaccess data located on the other electronic devices; a bulk datatransfer profile comprising a set of bulk data transfer schemas thatenables the electronic device to transfer bulk data to the otherelectronic devices or from the electronic devices; a status reportingprofile comprising a set of status reporting schemas that enables theelectronic device to send or receive status information from the otherelectronic devices; or a software update profile comprising a set ofsoftware update schemas that enables the electronic device to send orreceive software update images from the other electronic devices. 12.The electronic device of claim 8, wherein the version field comprises 8bits of data.
 13. The electronic device of claim 8, wherein the messagetype field comprises 8 bits of data.
 14. The electronic device of claim8, wherein the exchange ID field comprises 16 bits of data.
 15. A methodfor sending and receiving messages between devices in a fabric network,wherein the method comprises: sending or receiving a message using ageneral message format, wherein the general message format comprises: amessage header field comprising: a signature type field; and anencryption type field, wherein the message header field is configured toindicate: a version of the message format used to format the message;whether addressing information is included in the message; and whetherone or more security information fields are included in the message; amessage ID field following the message header field, wherein the messageID field is configured to identify a message with an identifier that isunique for a sending device of the one or more electronic devices thatsends the message; and an application payload field following themessage header field, wherein the application payload field comprisesdata transmitted from the sending device within the fabric network. 16.The method of claim 15, wherein the general message format comprises apacket length field immediately preceding the message header field,wherein the packet length field indicates a length of a packet sentusing a connection type used to send the message
 17. The method of claim16, wherein the connection type comprises a Transmission ControlProtocol connection.
 18. The method of claim 15, wherein the generalmessage format comprises a payload length field following the message IDfield and preceding the application payload field, wherein the payloadlength field comprises 2 bytes and is configured to indicate a length ofthe application payload field.
 19. The method of claim 15, wherein thegeneral message format comprises a message integrity check field thatimmediately follows the application payload and has a length based atleast in part on an encryption type indicated by the encryption typefield.
 20. The method of claim 19, wherein the one or more securityinformation fields comprises: a key ID field preceding the applicationpayload field, wherein the key ID field comprises two bytes thatindicate an encryption or message integrity key used to encrypt themessage indicated by the encryption type field; an initialization vectorfield immediately preceding the application payload field, wherein theinitialization vector field comprises an initialization vector used toencrypt the message indicated by the encryption type field; a paddingfield following the application payload field, wherein the padding fieldcomprises a length of bytes representing cryptographic padding added tothe message to make an encrypted portion of the message evenly divisibleby an encryption block size, wherein the encryption portion comprisesthe application payload field, the message integrity field, and thepadding field; or a message signature field located at an end of themessage, wherein the message signature field includes a cryptographicsignature for the message based at least in part on a signature typeindicated by the signature type field.